Old wallet under floor a passport to a boy’s life
Since finding it, family often wonders if Doug Sloane is still out there
A wallet can be so much more than a wallet — it can be a whole identity miniaturized to fit into a supple, folded leather package that can be carried around in one’s pocket.
And that’s kind of what Laura and Logan Speziale found when they were ripping up their house on the east Mountain as part of a major overhaul and second storey addition. The life of a boy.
His name was Douglas Sloane and his address was 248 East 19th St. It’s all there in his wallet, the attractive brown leather one with the fancy floral tooling, circa 1953.
There are black-and-white pictures, one of Douglas presumably, his shirt off, big smile, holding a fish he’d just caught. There’s a picture of a dog lying on a rock — it looks like a golden retriever or a large spaniel — and one of a deer, with a boy’s hand patting its back, maybe from some kind of petting zoo.
There’s a Big Four Softball Schedule from 1953. He played for the Hamilton Community Council Cardinals. There’s his boy scout card, for the year ending Oct. 31, 1953. Doug’s signature is on it as is his scoutmaster’s, and the name looks like Harry Bryant. There’s a wallet calendar, with dates marked off in the summer months, presumably softball games.
There’s also a photo of a house and there’s an identification card. The line that says “in case of accident or serious illness, notify” is filled in with the name Mrs. J.D. Sloane, 248 East 19th, phone number Jackson 3-7866.
For all that is left out, for all that we don’t know, still you really begin to get a picture of the kid, the way you can imagine the shape of a line just from a few dots.
Denise Wilson, Laura’s mother, says they’ve wondered often, since finding the wallet, if Doug Sloane is still out there, be it in Hamilton or elsewhere. It would be wonderful to give him his wallet back. He’d probably be in his mid-70s.
“We were ripping up a floor and there was a subfloor and a sub-sub-floor and that’s where we found the wallet,” says Logan Speziale. “It was underneath the tongue and groove.”
It’s a mystery in a way how it got there, because Laura and Logan’s address is not 248 East 19th St. It’s nearby but a different address. So, one imagines, young Doug might have been at the house of a friend and dropped the wallet there.
The wallet is remarkably wellpreserved as are all its contents. Aside from the wallet, Laura and Logan discovered several issues of old Hamilton Spectators. One from 1954, another from 1962.
“We found one (of the newspapers) in a crawl space, so it was protected,” says Laura.
The movies on the entertainment pages starred people like Brigitte Bardot and Tina Louise (Ginger from “Gilligan’s Island”) — “The Pit and the Pendulum” was playing at the Clappison Drive-In. The Players’ Guild was mounting “Five Finger Exercise.” There was an attractive man’s suit being advertised for $25; you can probably find it now, same price, at Value Village. A help wanted ad was looking for an “aggressive” salesman.
A law firm was welcoming new partners called to the bar: John Van Duzer, G.A.C. Simpson; James Whiteny. D. Cooper; and D.J. Inch. The Washingtons were performing with Fred Purser at Hotel Innsville. Adler’s was advertising a Westinghouse TV for $429.50.
“It’s like finding a time capsule,” says Laura’s mother, Denise, of all the discoveries. Laura and Logan are thinking that before the renovation is complete, they’d like to leave a time capsule of their own behind one of the walls.
If anyone knows anything about Douglas Sloane, please let me know.