JENISON, Mich. – A couple in West Michigan got a hand delivered
trip down memory lane on Tuesday, July 9th when something they
thought was lost forever found its way home.
FOX 17 was there as a man was reunited with something few of us can
go without.
There are things that come to Clarence Van Dyken’s mind when you
mention the year 1959. Gas was 25 cents a gallon back then
and he made 50 dollars a week.
On September first of 1959 Van Dyken spent $16.00 on car repairs,
something he can now prove thanks to an old receipt he found in a
wallet lost 54 years ago.
It’s return home started with a modern day problem; renovations in
Aron Schut’s bathroom in Jenison brought on by flood damage.
“I started sweeping up the insulation and inside was a wallet,”
Schut said. “So I thought, what a strange place for a
wallet. And opened it up and there was an I.D. in it and I
recognized the name, it sounded familiar. I know his
son. So through a couple phone calls I was able to locate his
son.”
That man was Clare Van Dyken. We met Clare on the driveway of
his father’s home in Jenison. We were there when he broke the
news to his dad that his wallet was located.
“I got a call today from a fella in my church that bought our old
house and he was taking apart our bathroom,” Clare said to his
father. “And by the bathtub, between the studs, he found your
old wallet in there from 1959.”
“I’ll be cow-kicked,” his father, Clarence Van Dyken said.
“Unreal!”
Van Dyken thumbed through the worn and tethered pieces of genuine
leather. Inside he found two dollars, one dated 1935.
He also found a couple pictures.
“I never thought I would see that beaut again,” said Van Dyken.
Each folded up piece of paper unlocked a new memory, old addresses
of relatives and neighbors, a grocery list for watermelon and
milk. He also found a combination to an unknown lock box.
Van Dyken said The trip down memory land was well worth the two
dollars he misplaced 54 years ago.