Kicker - A long-lost wallet

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, anyone who’s ever lost a wallet knows what a sick feeling that is. 

So it goes without saying that Paul Grisham was delighted to have his wallet returned, given that he hadn’t seen it in 53 years!

Here’s Grisham talking with television station KFMB:

GRISHAM: It brings back memories like you can’t believe. First and foremost is my ID card. There’s a picture of me with dark brown hair instead of grey.

He’d basically forgotten about the wallet and considered it lost forever, not only because of how much time had passed, but where he was when he lost it—an out-of-the-way outpost 25-hundred miles south of New Zealand. A place he called “the ice.”

GRISHAM: I never say Antarctica. I always say ‘the ice’ because that’s what we all called it.

He’s 91 now and the Navy vet shipped out to “the ice” in 1967 for a 13-month assignment as a meteorologist. Workers found the lost wallet while clearing out a building slated for demolition.

The wallet contained not only the driver’s license and ration card, but also a helpful pocket reference on what to do in case of atomic, biological, and chemical attacks. Good thing he didn’t need it.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Photo/AP, Nelvin C Cepeda) Paul Grisham’s wallet and contents

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