Missing a receipt from 1957? Day after tornado, bill is found 70 miles away
The morning after a tornado ripped through parts of northeastern Kansas, destroying homes in Linwood, a fifth-grade teacher nearly 70 miles away picked up a receipt on a school playground.
The piece of paper, slightly damp, was found outside a middle school in Lathrop, Missouri. Dated 1957, it was receipt for a car battery.
The listed city: Linwood, Kansas.
It very well could be a coincidence. But the school’s principal, Chauncey Rardon, guessed otherwise.
“Not only did it travel a long ways, but it’s rather old,” Rardon said.
Two tornadoes were reported Tuesday night, one of which traveled from in the southwest corner of Douglas County through the Lawrence area to Linwood, injuring about 20 people between the two, as well as tearing apart buildings. Another tornado touched down near Kearney in Clay County, Missouri and moved toward Excelsior Springs.
Further north, in the same general direction the tornado was traveling, is Lathrop, where the receipt was found.
Whether it was carried by the winds is a matter of speculation.
It would seem to be possible. The same storm system apparently carried debris from Linwood 47 miles to Kansas City International Airport in such quantities that the airfield could not be used.
After the teacher’s discovery, made while children played outside during summer school, Rardon posted a photo of the receipt on Twitter. He hoped to find anyone who may have found similar items in the path of the tornado.
Dated July 24, 1957, the receipt appears to be addressed to a Jimmy Elder. It came from a vehicle repair company, it seemed, called J.N. Snider & Sons.
The paper was thin, like an old carbon copy. Guessing the receipt was kept in a file cabinet before the tornado, Rardon was surprised it was not more torn up — if it did make the trip from Linwood.
For now, the receipt sits on Rardon’s shelf as a conversation starter.
That is, unless someone wants it back.
