Grandpa's Wallet from 1956

The wallet is the one that my Grandpa Cles carried with him just before he died, and most of things in it are still from when he used it.

There are exceptions--two red papers that would each be around five $100 bills. There were two of those but the dates were since my grandfather's passing.

There was also a check written out to my dad from my Grandma Liza for interest on the ranch. I wish that I had known what that was, because the date on the check was August 13, 1958, which was over two years since the death of my grandfather, who died on February 9, 1956. I have no idea what it was. No one cashed it, but the check was in the wallet. From what I could see, Grandma Liza must have used it to put money she occasionally withdrew from her account at the bank, probably for Christmas or other occasions.

The inside of the wallet is interesting; however, it shows my grandfather's social security card, and given the strange things that happen when people find a number, I don't want to place a photo copy on this site, unless I am sure it would be secure to do so.

This fifty dollar bill at the left has an interesting history. In the weeks before my grandpa's passing, whenever he and Grandma Liza were with my parents--and probably me--at
a Malad restaurant, he would look at my dad when they brought the bill and say, "All I've got is a $50." Everyone would laugh, and dad would pay for the meal. My grandfather was very generous, so it was not a matter of his allowing dad to pay the tab. It became a fun family story. This is the actual bill that was in grandpa's wallet. The date of the bill is 1950.

The two $2 bills below are from 1928. I wish I knew if my grandfather had those in his wallet, and why he did that, because I do not think they were there.

A $2 bill was such an odd currency to see when I was young, and because it was so rare to find, my grandmother would pay for them whenever she saw them while working at the bank after my grandfather's death. When I was young, most people viewed them as a luck charm, and later when horse racing in Malad became popular in the 60's-80's, most people used them at the races to place bets.

Grandpa Cles would not have been at the horse races, not because he was against gambling, but because there was always work on the farm, especially in the fall. I could see him at the county fair, but not at the races, and I am pretty sure that the races didn't exist at that time in Malad.














The owner identification card below is for the '56 two-tone green and white Century Buick that grandpa bought my Grandma Liza. I remember a mechanic telling dad and me that many considered it a sports car at the time.

Given my dad's response when I talked grandma into buying a '67 Camaro Rally Sport with the hideaway lights, I find it a bit funny, unless you realize that you become wiser when you are older. My dad didn't want his mother in a car like that in the 60's, and it would have been a sweet ride, four on the floor with a large engine and dual exhausts.

The Buick is at the right. The photo is from September of 1959, my first day of first grade. I remember my friend J. Verlo Rose had a shirt similar to this one, although the color might have been different. His was red with a large "V" pattern on the front. I think mine was red, but the same pattern was similar although not as dominant as the one that my friend had.