John Amalfitano, 60, always has the past.
of Amalfitano Home of Dunnellon, New Jersey Filled with relics of the past, he says he has a connection.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he told CBS News.
The most memorable item in his home was an unusual find: a chicken egg found by a neighbor in an egg carton in 1951. Written on the egg is a Miss Mary Foss of Forest City, Iowa.
On the road
“Whoever finds this egg please write,” Fosse wrote along with his name and location. Amalfitano said his neighbor kept the egg for 50 years, never bothering to find Foss or write back.
A neighbor gave it to Amalfitano, who kept it for another two decades before sharing the photos on social media. He posted pictures of it on the “Weird and Wonderful Secondhand Finds” Facebook page, prompting the group’s three million members to wonder if Foss was still alive.
On the road
The team scrambled to find Foss. The message was 72 years old, and many feared that finding Foss would not be easy, but within a day, they found her.
Foss, now 92, recalled writing on the egg to CBS News. As a teenager, she worked in an egg-packing factory and dreamed of meeting someone in a faraway place.
“We all dream,” she explained. The note on the egg was her own message in a bottle.
On the road
Now, more than seven decades after writing it down, she’s made the connection she craved — and reunited with her egg. Amalfitano and Fosse recently met for the first time on Zoom, and Amalfitano was determined to show her the egg, whose message was still visible.
Fosse seemed pleased to see the egg again, but said he would never meet Amalfitano in person.
“He’s got his problem, keeping an egg that long,” she said.
On the road
To contact OnTheRoad or send us a story idea, email us at: [email protected].
“Total coffee junkie. Tv ninja. Unapologetic problem solver. Beer expert.”