Put it in the want ads...

The text of this little newspaper ad reads as follows: (you can click to enlarge if you like)

NOTICE

To the person that came in Jack Bufkin's store last Friday afternoon, January 4, 1957, between the hours of 3:15 and 4:15 and took my purse from underneath the counter.
Will you please be kind to me and return to some place, say, my front lawn or some prominent place, the personal articles that were in said purse such as fountain pen, gold pencil, cigarette lighter, man's band ring and pocket knife. These articles were Preston's and were valued greatly by me.
I would also appreciate your returning the two big one dollar bills as Preston gave them to me years ago- also my keys and personal papers that were in bill fold.
If you return them, I will not have anything fingerprinted.

Minnie Lee Barrett

I found this little gem tucked away in a scrapbook that had been kept by my great-aunt.... Minnie Lee ... while going through some pictures, etc. at my grandmother's house. This great-aunt of mine died before I was ever born, but people still talk about her to this day in the small Mississippi town, not too far from here, where she spent her life. She was every inch the ideal "Southern lady"~ right down to her manners and white gloves. She always gave of herself and her time to her church as well as others, and was much adored by my dad. She never had children of her own, so daddy enjoyed alot of "special attention" from this beloved aunt.

The purse mentioned in the little ad was never recovered, nor were the items that she so treasured. I got just a little nostalgic reading this tiny bit of insignificant history. Nostalgic for simpler times when the big news of the week (month, YEAR?!!) in a sleepy little town was the purse that was stolen from underneath a store counter.
*Sigh*... how times have changed.