Rudolph R. Resta, 77, walked out of a wintry rain recently, through the revolving door of a largely empty Times Square office building, and into his distant past.
He found his two sons, now in their 40s, when they were small enough to fit into the same lawn chair, side by side. He found his wife, Angela, posing before a knife-sharp Pontiac Grand Prix in Prospect Park, looking very sultry in a jaguar stole; “real jaguar,” he said, “not the stuff they have today.” He found a picture of his father, Nicola, that he once worried he would never see again. He found a Social Security card issued by the Federal Security Agency (the office hasn’t existed since 1953) and an American Express card so old that it wasn’t green, it was purple and white. (Member Since 64.)
When Mr. Resta went to fetch his jacket at lunchtime on that long-ago day, the wallet was gone. He wasn’t to see it again for 40 years. The reunion was made possible by José Cisneros, 46, a security guard who works in the former Times building, now called the Times Square Building. He came across the wallet last fall when he was investigating a void between an old unused window on the second floor and the masonry seal behind it. The wallet had apparently been stashed there after a thief found it in the coat closet and pulled out the cash.
What a great story.
The one item I would like to get back would be my useless high school ring. It was real gold. And when my parents bought it for me it was very expensive. That year was the year the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market. This had an affect on the gold prices that year and caused the price to skyrocket.
A ring that should have cost about a hundred dollars was $364(US). I princely sum to the very middle-middle class Stephens's. To put this in perspective, I bought a car that summer I saved for two years for. I paid $150(US) for that car.
I had the ring or a girl friend had the ring for two years. In the Fall of 1981, I was working at JC Penney's and had made a mess with paint. I went to the sink to clean up and left my ring there on the sink. Someone wanted it more than me I guess, because it was gone. I can't even describe how sick I was about that. It took me a week to tell my parents.
Unfortunately I'll probably get back a wallet I lost at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in 1982. I had that wallet right up to Family Day on Sunday before graduation. I can't remember anything other than my driver's license in it. Maybe a Social Security Card and maybe a picture of my girl friend at the time.
