Family treasures turn up in a bin

JONATHAN CAMERON

OLD AND BATTERED: Framed wedding photographs, workbooks and diaries were in this suitcase full of historical family treasures that turned up at their Wesley Vintage secondhand store.

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A young man gazes out of another photo, standing tall with other members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force squadron. A cap is perched jauntily on his short-back-and-sides.

There are more pictures, some of them framed, along with a frayed-looking record book and diaries filled with meticulous drawings and handwriting. Newspaper clippings spill from the pages.

Six weeks ago, a battered old suitcase full of these historical documents was collected from one of Methodist Social Services clothing bins.

It turned up in the workshop out the back of Wesley Vintage, the Methodist Social Services secondhand clothing store on King St.

After shop workers realised the suitcase was a family treasure, they kept it aside, assuming someone would turn up to collect it.

But the weeks went by, and the suitcase has yet to be claimed.

"It breaks my heart," said store manager Frankie Maney yesterday.

"What we think is an estate has been cleared out, and somehow [this suitcase] has ended up here. There's some absolutely incredible pictures, there's part of a diary dating back to 1944 ... it's beautiful."

The suitcase could have been tipped into any of the 16 Methodist Social Services clothing bins in Palmerston North, or the one in Ashhurst, Mrs Maney said. She suspected it had been thrown in by accident, and the family had no idea.

"If it's someone from Auckland who's cleared out Grandma and Granddad's house here, they may not know we've got it – they may think another family member's got it," she said.

On the lid of the suitcase, the name "Bird," is handwritten along with a Hamilton address for 249 Peachgrave Rd, and an old five-digit telephone number.

Pictures of a custom-built car and a book of diagrams suggest the suitcase's owner was an engineer, with photos showing him wearing an Air Force 2nd Squadron uniform.

A news clipping has a picture of an older man named Keith Bird, who is named as the immediate past-president of the Raglan Golf Club.

Mrs Maney said the suitcase should serve as a warning to other families to take care when clearing out the homes of loved ones. She hoped the owner could be found.

"I think it would be a neat Christmas present, for a family to be reunited with their history."

- © Fairfax NZ News