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Once a teen's satchel, now an accidental time capsule

A Tarpon Springs teen who died in 1930 left behind a bag of mementos. His little sister, now 85, found it in the attic.

By ROBIN STEIN
Published December 9, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - What did 15-year-old boys carry to school in 1930?

A summer book report, papers, bugs, coffee, a lunch box, lunch money? Perhaps even lunch.

"I don't think a Game Boy is going to come out of it," Alexander Alissandratos said to an audience of adults and children from St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Parochial School at the St. Nicholas Community Center on Thursday. The crowd had gathered to witness the opening of a leather satchel, 75 years old, that had just recently been discovered.

The accidental time capsule had belonged to Alissandratos' uncle, also named Alexander, who was a month shy of 16 when he died in July 1930.

He died after poking at a boil on his arm with a sponging needle from his father's sponge packing house, the audience was told. With no penicillin or sulfa to treat the resulting infection, the teenager died within a week.

But it wasn't until last month that his little sister, Katherine Kelly, now 85, came across the bag in the attic of the family's brick home on Tarpon Avenue.

"It has preserved what childhood in Tarpon Springs was like then," Alissandratos said, motioning for the audience to gather around as he unbuckled the weathered latches. "Come take a peek at what life was like 75 years ago."

The excavation revealed that childhood wasn't so different. Alissandratos pulled out a pocketknife, a gold pocket watch, a ball bearing from a roller skate wheel, a broken comb and a newspaper clipping about a rival high school's victory in a football game.

Even one of the two mechanical pencils still worked.

A report card showed that teachers thought he was "showing improvement across the board" but still "whispers too much" and "annoys others."

While many of the relics were familiar, others showed how much time has changed.

For all of his athletic ambitions and mixed grades, Alexander also carried textbooks for Greek, Latin and Spanish, as well as a book called English with Drills and Essentials.

The young Alexander also carried a postcard of boxer Jack Dempsey and a pair of yellowed boxing gloves.

His handkerchiefs could be easily mistaken for one of his padless boxing gloves.

In penmanship that amazed the onlookers, Alexander had transcribed several verses from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. There was a slightly playful letter from a Ms. Helen Klito of Tampa dated January 10, 1929.

"I like to play Post office," she wrote. "But if an American boy kissed me or I kissed them, my parents would die."

She continued: "I hope that we can come to Tarpon soon, but if we don't come, you come. We certainly did have a good time that last time."

Alexander's bag and its contents will be donated to the Tarpon Springs Historical Society, said his nephew and sister.

Katherine Kelly, who was 10 when her brother died, said she was devastated by his death, especially since it came just two years after her sister's death. Kelly, who still lives in the house on Tarpon Avenue, said she was especially sad that her two other brothers, who both died recently, were not there to witness the bag's opening.

"It makes me nostalgic," she said.

[Last modified December 9, 2005, 01:19:17]