Hagrid is in the House!

Going through my files, I found this newspaper clipping from 1968.

Even though I was born in Topeka, Kansas, I count Manhattan, Kansas, as my hometown. The only reason I was born at Stormont-Vail is that my mother, an OB-GYN nurse, didn't want to have me where she worked, at St. Mary's hospital in Manhattan. My first home was in Manhattan, on Juliette Ave., which is the address listed on my birth certificate. I have never lived in Topeka.
The text reads:

In Topeka
Hospital Births

St. Francis
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Runnebaum, 4509 E. 45th, girl, March 22.
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Lindeman, 2742 Illinois, boy and girl, March 23.
Mr. and Mrs. George Cober, 645 Sumner, girl, March 23.

Stormont-Vail
Mr. and Mrs. William Welchhans, 5500 W. 19th, girl, march 22.
Mr. and Mrs. Francis Jacobs, Manhattan, boy, March 23.

(From the Topeka Capital-Journal, March 24, 1968)

Well how about that.

I was contacted by an administrator at my old high school in Kentucky, Ft. Knox High School, who found me here on LJ. I had listed Ft. Knox as my high school on my profile, and she was able to locate me because of it.

Turns out, someone in Barnes, Kansas had contacted the high school, saying that they had found my high school class ring!

Tonight, I called the woman who had it. Her husband is a building contractor. His crew was digging a basement in the University Park subdivision by Tuttle Creek (near my home town, Manhattan). They found the ring, wondered if it was worth anything (it isn't, I think mom paid about $160 when she bought it for me in 1986), and she went looking for me. Seems she likes a mystery.

Her name is Linda, and she was quite kind to return it to me. I am grateful for her diligence. I only wish I wasn't so broke right now. She's sending it, along with more details about the ring's finding, which she said she'd ask her husband about.

My my my.

The last time I saw that ring was about twenty or more years ago. I was spending the summer in the University Park House, when I first moved away from home. I was helping dad hang some drywall and insulate the place with rock wool (yuck).

At some point, I think during the summer of 1988, was the last time I saw the class ring. It disappeared when I was staying at University Park that magical, lonely summer, and I never knew where it got to.

And after all these years, it's returning to me. Wow.

More when it arrives.