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Lost lunchbox found at Virginia school after 42 years
UPI ^ | December 17, 2001 | Ben Hooper

Posted on 12/17/2024 11:14:28 AM PST by Red Badger

Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A plumber working at a Virginia elementary school made a startling discovery: a Heathcliff lunchbox lost by a student more than 40 years earlier.

Roanoke City Public Schools said in a Facebook post that a plumber was doing maintenance at Fairview Elementary School and came across a metal lunchbox bearing images of the orange cartoon cat.

"Inside, we found a thermos that still smells like hot chocolate, an adorable drawing, and a tag with the student's name: Tracy Drain, who appears to have been in Mrs. Curry's class in Room 30," district officials wrote. "The lunchbox appears to have been made in the early 1980s."

The post eventually came to the attention of the correct Tracy Drain, who lost her lunchbox during her 4th grade year in 1982.

"I think it's amazing," Drain told WDBJ-TV. "If I would've been the person that found it, I would've put it on eBay, and it's finders keepers, losers weepers. But it's very interesting to be able to see it. As far as remembering it, I do not, but it has my mom's handwriting, which I'll treasure right here."



TOPICS: History; Humor; Local News; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: benhooper; fairviewelementary; godsgravesglyphs; tracydrain; virginia
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1 posted on 12/17/2024 11:14:28 AM PST by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

If there’s a Twinkie inside...just say’n


2 posted on 12/17/2024 11:18:47 AM PST by RckyRaCoCo (Time to throw them out of the Temple...again)
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To: Red Badger

Very brave opening that Thermos.


3 posted on 12/17/2024 11:19:06 AM PST by Rio
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To: Red Badger

Kids used to be sent to school with a paper bag with unrefrigerated food, bologna, egg salad, tuna fish, maybe a fried egg sandwich that was fried, wrapped and thrown into the bag, leftover bacon on bread, what was weirder was coming home from school and eating breakfast leftovers that had been sitting on the stove all day.


4 posted on 12/17/2024 11:20:09 AM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: Red Badger
I remember having one of these way back in the 60s. After that, I think it was always a brown paper bag.


5 posted on 12/17/2024 11:20:41 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: ansel12

Ditto......................


6 posted on 12/17/2024 11:21:02 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Rio

Twinkie was still fresh.


7 posted on 12/17/2024 11:21:18 AM PST by I-ambush (From the brightest star comes the blackest hole. You had so much to offer, why didya offer your sou?)
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To: Red Badger

Girls start off with $2 lunchboxes as accessories

and move to $15,000 Hermes handbags.


8 posted on 12/17/2024 11:22:54 AM PST by PGR88
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To: ansel12
Kids used to be sent to school with a paper bag with unrefrigerated food, bologna

Yep

9 posted on 12/17/2024 11:24:20 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: ansel12

Huh. I only ever got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.


10 posted on 12/17/2024 11:24:39 AM PST by Beowulf9 (c)
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To: I-ambush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=719mWVl9Nh4


11 posted on 12/17/2024 11:24:54 AM PST by Hillarys Gate Cult (“History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes” - Possibly Mark Twain.)
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To: Red Badger

Wish they would’ve said where he found it. How did it go untouched for forty years? Where the heck was it?!


12 posted on 12/17/2024 11:25:28 AM PST by Beowulf9 (c)
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To: Red Badger

How’s this...

...my confirmation Bible was found sitting on top of a tall cabinet at my father’s funeral 55 years after it was misplaced.


13 posted on 12/17/2024 11:25:53 AM PST by chiller (Davey Crockett said: "Be sure you're right. Then go ahead'. I'll go ahead.)
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To: chiller

He put it in a safe place..............


14 posted on 12/17/2024 11:26:30 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

“If I would’ve been the person that found it, I would’ve put it on eBay”

And Tracy Drain immediately put it up for sale on eBay.


15 posted on 12/17/2024 11:28:22 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (There are two ways to live your life: nothing is a miracle or everything is a miracle - A. Einstein)
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To: Beowulf9

https://www.wdbj7.com/2024/12/11/long-lost-lunchbox-returned-owner-over-40-years-later/


16 posted on 12/17/2024 11:29:34 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Beowulf9

Thats a very LOW maintenance area.


17 posted on 12/17/2024 11:29:37 AM PST by Delta 21 (If anyone is treasonous, it is those who call me such.)
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To: Beowulf9
Wish they would’ve said where he found it. How did it go untouched for forty years? Where the heck was it?!

That nasty boy Tommy Doyle threw it behind the electrical breaker box in the cafeteria, after Tracy and her friends laughed at him for picking his nose in the cafeteria line (he says he was just scratching it), and for not combing his hair....

At least, that's how I imagine it played out.

18 posted on 12/17/2024 11:32:15 AM PST by PGR88
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To: Red Badger
I had Flipper... :-)


19 posted on 12/17/2024 11:32:26 AM PST by Hatteras
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To: ClearCase_guy

I think I had those, too. When did they start putting characters on lunch boxes? I might have had a Roy Rogers or Lone Ranger, but I think they were plain or plaid in the late 50s and early 60s.


20 posted on 12/17/2024 11:33:59 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (There are two ways to live your life: nothing is a miracle or everything is a miracle - A. Einstein)
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