Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 10, 1995 TAG: 9505100014
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
People leave all sorts of things at public libraries around the Roanoke Valley: love letters, airline tickets, family photos, uncashed paychecks, homework papers, wedding rings, cash in amounts as high as $100.
Some are tucked away in returned books; others are forgotten at various places around the library.
A year or more ago, someone left a half-century-old love letter beside the copy machine at the Roanoke County Public Library headquarters on Electric Road. It was from a young Marine sergeant stationed in San Diego to his girlfriend in Washington, D.C.
"Still no idea as to when I'll be home," he wrote, "but it will be sometime this month. You'd like to be a June bride, wouldn't you?''
The letter is still in the library's lost-and-found. Priscilla Johnson, senior library assistant at the Electric Road headquarters, figures someone was copying a stack of family documents and left without it - not realizing that it didn't get put back in with the rest of the papers.
The envelope is postmarked 9:30 a.m. June 2, 1944. It carried a 6-cent air-mail stamp and a 2-cent "Nations United for Liberty" stamp. The letter is handwritten on two pages of U.S. Marine Corps stationery.
Library staff members tried to track down the letter's owner but had no luck. "We'd love to find out who it belongs to," Johnson said. "They still may not realize that it was lost."
Library staffers try to track down the owners of valuable items, but often there's no way to find them. Bookmarks are left so often that the library put up an orphan-bookmarks bulletin board for the month of February.
A few people claimed lost bookmarks, but about 60 are still unclaimed. They include some store-bought ones, such as a "Famous Frogs in Literature" bookmark, and some homemade ones, which are crocheted or hand-drawn. One has a little boy's school photo pasted on it, along with a heart and the words "I love Mom" scrawled in red crayon. There's also a yellowing fourth-place ribbon from the Special Olympics.
"It does make you a little sad," Johnson said. "You think: Gosh, those are some things they wouldn't want to lose - especially the pictures and the homemade bookmarks. You think maybe somebody's mother made that."
Photos used as bookmarks frequently turn up when books are reshelved - and sometimes afterward. One currently in lost-and-found at the county library headquarters is a black-and-white picture of a toddler sitting on an overstuffed chair. Next to her is a teddy bear that's a bit bigger than she is. She has on a flowered outfit, and her shoes look too big for her, as if she had put on some adult's shoes for fun. The corners of the photo have been snipped off, and a first and last name - first name "Ola" - are written in blue ink on the back.
At the county library's Glenvar branch, the lost-and-found includes a monogrammed gold bracelet and a sewing gauge. There's also an old 331/3-rpm "Children's Dance Time" record, which includes such hits as "Swing Your Partner" and "Continuous Music for Skip Tag."
The library branch has coats that have been unclaimed for years.
"We also have a key chain and a four-of-hearts card," library assistant Pat Carter said. And a child's fanny pack. "It's stuffed full of candy," Carter said. "No ID. Just candy." Looking further, Carter discovered that the fanny pack also holds tiny toy war tanks, a toy train and a bottle opener/pocket knife.
Joanne Jackson, senior library assistant at the Hollins branch, said a man lost his keys in the library one day. After a thorough search didn't turn them up, he called someone to come get him.
Library staffers finally found them after he'd left. "He'd left his phone number, and we called and told him," Jackson said. "But he never came back and picked them up."
Editor's note: On May 3 after he finished writing this story, staff writer Mike Hudson thought he lost his wallet in the Virginia Room of Roanoke's main library. It turned out he'd left it in his car.
by CNB