Rumor has it there is a room deep within the College of Arts and Sciences that holds the key to the past. However, its not a room of historic novels or of antiques or even dated artifacts.
This fabled room is the CAS lost and found.
It turns out, however, the CAS lost and found is not a room, but rather a wooden box measuring about six cubic feet in room B35. It is hardly a vast room filled with treasure — unless you consider an old copy of “Oliver’s Story” by Erich Segal equivalent to a pirate’s booty. Either that or a roll of toilet paper that’s been half-unrolled.
“Some stuff is brought in by students and teachers, and some stuff by the night crew,” said George, a Boston University Physical Plant employee who would not give his last name. The Physical Plant maintains The Box. “People do look through stuff, but there’s no way to tell who things belong to.”
Valuables are kept separate and attempts are made to return the items to their owners, though other relics from the past are kept in The Box, including a vintage maroon, polyester Wilson tennis jacket.
And if you’ve run out of dining points, but need a Starbucks Travel Mug, you can get one at the lost and found, but be warned: its from last season’s Starbucks mug fashion line.
Class Reunion Reports from 1932, 1934, 1941 and 1948 also live in The Box as scraps of history.
Some unfortunate soul seems to have lost a Nautica backpack to the lost and found, which includes a foul smelling pair of Nike sneakers and an entire basketball appropriate outfit, complete with sweat-crusted mesh shorts and a once-slimy T-shirt.
And if the owner of that outfit picks it up and heads straight to the gym, he or she will be ready for the showers with the VO5 Pear Mango Passion Shampoo and Conditioner and a comb found in The Box.
Throw on one of the numerous black shirts in the lost and found and it’s time for a hot date, perchance with Tatyana Ali, the Harvard University student and actress whose phone number can be found in a telephone and address book located amongst The Box’s treasures.
Impress her with the extensive knowledge gained by reading any of the random textbooks and notebooks scattered about The Box. Molecular Biology, Genetics or perhaps the New Aristotle Reader. Someone has even left a semester full of notes from SM 211, organized with tabs for every lecture.
“I thought I saw [The Box] once, but it wasn’t it,” said Greg Saltieo, a CAS freshman.
Other students echoed Saltieo, reasoning the age of the items may be reflective of students unfamiliarity with The Box.
“I had no idea it existed,” said Chole Quail, a CAS freshman.
Other students said now that they know about The Box, maybe all is not lost.
“I have renewed hope now that I know about the lost and found,” said Greg Hastings, a CAS freshman who lost a jacket in the fall.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
