CORNISH — A former Cornish Flat schoolboy got a blast from the past Thursday when he received a wallet and baseball glove he had lost as a teen nearly 70 years ago.

The glove isn't usable, but the photos in the wallet and a letter from a teenage girlfriend have brought back a flood of memories.

“It just blew me out of the water. I had no idea I had lost it,” said 81-year-old Warren Houghton of Kalamazoo, Mich.

The wallet and glove were found during a renovation at the Chesire Mount Vernon Masonic Lodge 23.

The former one-room school building in Cornish Flat was given to the Masons in the 1950s, said Worshipful Master Michael Shklar of Newport.

Shklar said he believes the town had little use for the building that had no indoor plumbing or central heating and wanted it back on the tax rolls.

The Masons have since installed central heating but were just getting around to installing indoor plumbing when lodge brother Dave Serrentino, who had been hired to install the bathroom, found the wallet and baseball glove inside a wall.

“We all looked at the wallet and realized it was filled with perfectly preserved pictures and a Boy Scout ID card,” Shklar said. “(Houghton's) dad had died in '38. There was a picture of him in there with the date of his death.”

Shklar said he believes the wallet was lost in 1944 because of a pocket calendar in the wallet. Shklar first had to call and make sure he found the right owner of the items.

“I had absolutely no idea at that time who he was or why he was calling,” Houghton said.

After ensuring he had found the right Warren Houghton, Shklar sent the wallet and baseball glove to Houghton, who received the items Thursday.

Houghton said he would have been around 14-years-old when he lost the items.

He lived across the street from the school, which was for fifth- to eighth-graders.

Because he lived so close, it was his job to go to the school early in the morning and start the wood stove. He believes he must have placed the wallet and glove on top of a wood pile one morning and the items fell through the wood and into a partition between the inner and outer wall. There appears to have been no water damage to his items, he said.

“There were several photos in the wallet and it was absolutely amazing,” Houghton said. “They look like they were taken yesterday with a black-and-white camera and everything that was in the wallet was in excellent shape. …The baseball glove is in mighty tough shape, but it brings back memories.”

Also inside the wallet was a record of his Boy Scout merit badges and a letter from a girl named Margaret.

Houghton said he has been telling people the letter was written by his half-sister, but has now realized she would have been too young to have written the letter.

“The first person I could think of whose name is Margaret was my half-sister,” Houghton said. “Now, I'm sure it was a lady of the name of Margaret Eastman.”

Houghton said she was his sweetheart, something his wife of 60 years, Betty, will never let him live down.

Shklar said he got a big kick out of a question Margaret poses in the letter, “Are Nathan and Phyl still holding hands?” Apparently, they are. Nathan and Phyllis Hughes of Sunapee have been married for 53 years, Houghton said.

Nathan was his best friend in school, he said, and his family is still very close to the couple.

Both couples are snowbirds, wintering in Florida, Houghton said. “We have homes down there about a mile apart.”

Houghton attended high school in Claremont with Nathan, Phyllis and Margaret. As a teen, Houghton lived in Claremont and had a Union Leader paper route.

Nathan, Phyllis and Margaret all graduated from high school in Claremont, but Houghton dropped out of high school to join the Navy and fought in the Korean War.

He returned to Claremont after his service and worked at Fellows Gear Shaper Mill in Springfield, Vt., where he met Betty.

He was with the company for 34 years and was transferred from Michigan back to Vermont and then back to Michigan.

Warren and Betty have strong ties to Michigan now because that is where their two daughters settled. The couple has two daughters, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Houghton has been sending copies of the family photos to his older sister, who lives in New York.

“I have sent her copies of quite a bit of these things 'cause I'm sure she can remember some of these relatives better than I,” he said.

And he plans to return to New Hampshire this summer for a visit with Nathan and Phyllis Hughes, who are eager to read Margaret's letter. The Hughes family is still in contact with Margaret, who still lives in the area, and sees her about once a year, Houghton said.

“I think we made Mr. Houghton extraordinarily happy,” Shklar said. “It's a fun story and we're all happy that it all worked out cause we made somebody really happy. So we all get to smile a little bit. That's what the Masons are all about, helping people.”

mpierce@newstote.com