Kay Thompson of Middleborough, holding the diary dollar. Photo: Brooke McCarthy/WBZ NewsRadio
MIDDLEBOROUGH, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — At first glance it just looks like a battered, taped up dollar bill — but on closer inspection, the bill is covered in brown cursive writing dating back to WWII.
It's a list of dates and places throughout Europe that a young infantry man passed through when he was fighting there toward the tail end of the war. Kay Thompson of Middleborough is trying to find its rightful owner, or his family.
She says her father-in-law Al Thomson kept the dollar bill in his wallet for decades. Al Thompson was working as a longshoreman in South Boston during the war, so Kay believes he may have received the dollar from a friend who was stationed in Europe.
"It's kind of like an itinerary, and you can follow him across France and across Germany, " Thompson said.
The first date on the dollar is from August 29, 1944 in Liverpool, England, when the man is thought to have landed. The last date is May 1, 1945 — just one week before the German surrender, which marked the end of war in Europe.
"All of a sudden, it stops. He must have come home. He had to come home for the dollar to come home," Thompson said. She said she assumes the man has passed away, but that the man's family might like to have the dollar as a keepsake.
WBZ's Brooke McCarthy (@BrookeWBZ) has more:
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