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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1987)
It McC; £ LOVE HlfA.JOSll wanted XX) AL To KNOW. M All /inlhoF? FiDEi/rr? o J i /I J JfS! t , v /T )an Baf Monday, September he first lady’s court eveille V joins in a yell wit!’ the seniors in the Dot line at the T exas A&M football s( ison-op< ner gainst Louisiana State Universitv. Seniors form sM ' mm l » ^ ^ i 7/Th lion/Page 7 sm • im-m- 1 v. s * : fr. > o ov Robert W. F izzo opens i r finds billfold after" i mm fv ■ j lot (){ otk cpMA; tpffered wallet brinas memories to owner wt right. I w x ^ch'€S 3S P^R LAINVIEW (Ap) _ i t ’ s almost itll till Wh like a letter that showed up a lifetime j " after it was mailed. Or a borrowed book returned decades later. ly PnnCC, ^BTyde Stovall opened a package poJjcetfrom his hometown and found a tat tered billfold and a driver’s license niwm nil—— sent to him by the proprietor of a ffljinview theater in which he lost it , beitei chat SO vearsago. , i , rffe wOh, yes, I was surprised, says rove , Stovall, who left Plainview as an adult to work in the Houston ship yards and later went into the grocery business in Lubbock, where he re prove U: tired about a bout with cancer in : , ; 1 K :;. 1973. (l lt - A 0 ijffJwl'But w hat really surprised me is ire nl0U that signature,” he says. “When I saw it, i( looked exactly like my writing you ve g 11 t0< j a y j would have thought a signa ture would change through the I ■<£ x ternal! i y e 3rs, but it’s exactly the same.” . ’ . re usuall'i called my family and sisters and n " ,s '! n ..felev tofl them about it. They wanted to "T mii niundiiTonie and see the billfold and every- \ | | M .j r thing.” s .. 0 : n ct M It disappeared from his pocket at lke ; S rS ti the Fair Theater — one of several thriving city movie houses of the , e j ( j ier 1930s. He’s sure he lost the wallet s IK t ' ' while on a date at about age 16. uch as a ^ reme mber, just barely,” he says, buse. 0 | “j think I recall something about los- i.irty t () r< ' ingit volye oal) ^j^^That was the first driver’s license mplainay j ever had.” He carried it to the can be '' shows, because he drove to them, ith no ba ^ rlfc ,“We had a 1931 Chevrolet at home, sustain* ( c which they let me drive every once in loneratedob 1 a while, usually to take on a date,” he says. But he doesn’t think anyone prof ited from finding his wallet. “That’s very doubtful,” Stovall says. “I didn’t carry too much. About that time I delivered the Herald, charging 30 cents a week. I made about 8 cents out of each customer’s charge. I had 122 people op my route.” The only other contents — a toy sheriffs badge — did bring back some memories. “ I remember I got that out of Cracker Jacks,” Stovall says. I bought Cracker Jacks at the show.” The old badge carries a pre- World War II “Made in Japan” im print. Stovall spent quite a few Saturday evenings at the Fair — then known as the Plainview Theater — but he spent even more time at the Gra nada Theater, a block down the street, where he led a band that played during intermission. Their pay was free admission to the mid night feature. Stovall recalls that the Fair was less expensive than the Granada and sometimes had more current mov ies, though both were operated by the same owner. The Granada was the more plush of the two theaters, and the theater at which he and the crowd he asso ciated with felt most comfortable performing. Viewers could lean back and explore the ceiling, black ened except for tiny lights to re create the stars and the moon, accu rate down to placement of the big dipper and other constellations. By today’s standard, the Fair — though in need of refurbishing and not in use — is, perhaps, more his torically significant than its sister- theater. Unlike the Granada, which has been remodeled as a twin cin ema, the Fair retains the look and feel of the period, with its ornamen tal plaster balcony jutting out over the main seating area, its stage and orchestra pit unchanged through the years. The Fair has been vacant in past months, except when workmen be gan repairs and found the wallet. V.D. “Shorty” Duzan, the car penter wfio found the wallet, the orized' it was stolen, or found and discarded. “I think someone must have thrown the wallet up there, maybe emptied it of money first,” he says. Pointing up to the bare rafters where it lav hidden in a bed of insu lation for years. Duzan says he also found a second, empty billfold nearby. Jack Oswald, who operates Os wald Printing and Office Supply next door, recently bought the old theater from the Federal Deposit In surance Corporation. He learned ol Stovall’s new address and forwarded the old wallet to him. ctoil 9 SOI] JOE "KING" CARRASCO FRIDAY-SEPTEMBER 18TH 8:30 p.m. DeWare Fieldhouse Tickets $5.50-TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE TAMU BOX OFFICE 845-1234 j DELTA CHI FALL RUSH SCHEDULE DELTA CHI SMOKER Thursday, September 10th, 7:00 p.m. (SHARP) at the House. SWALLOW IT WHOLE” ^ Coat and T,e rec l uired ’ invitat,on on, y) Wednesday, September 9th, 7:30 p.m., PART y AT SOMERVILLE w/DELTA ZETA Saturday, September 12th, meet at the House at noon (invitation only). PRIVATE PARTY AT ROCCO’S Monday, September 7th, 7:30 p.m (invitation only) Annual Seafood Party. At the House. Attire for all functions except the final smoker and the lake party is “collegiate casual”. For more information, call the House-(409) 846-5053. Aspen I llHI Luutidr a{m Old College Main Loupot’s iilMl IPL, m 11 L 3 m m m ^ \i \ ll 1 Hi 1 OTojkI ie*. cinA MAKE- MV' OAY' f n/y/s/ WELCOME HOME AGGIES STUDENT CHECKING •NO MINIMUM BALANCE. ■NO MONTHLY SERVICE CHARGE.