Unexpected Jewelry box find

My grandmother has been in poor health lately. To the point where we were forced to put her in a skilled care facility. While sorting and organizing her apartment I discovered a small jewelry box that I had bought her years before. While on vacation in Texas I had bought both my grandmothers simple, pretty, floral jewelry boxes. I don't know what became of one grandmothers box after she passed when I was 12, I wanted to ensure this box was safe. I took it home and sat it on my dresser with my boxes. There it set for several days before I had the courage to open the lid for a peak. My grandmother apparently kept some of her prize keepsakes in this box. There was a old watch they her uncle Prince had gave her, her valedictorian and high school pin, a decoration from some roses papaw had bought her years before.

Among these special possessions was a tie tact from the US Department of Customs. No one in the family had worked for Customs, at least to my knowledge. Slowly through many questions the story unfolded. I knew my grandmother had been considered a "catch" in her youth. She had several men trying for her hand before she settled on my grandfather. The pin came from one such suitor. No one can quite remember his name, and now that grandma has passed I may never know his name.

The story starts when my grandmother decided she was going to join the Air Force. Her sister was already part of the WAF program, and that sisters husband was in the Air Force. My grandmother flew out to meet them. While there she met, and was courted by this young US. Customs officer. He "pinned" her with his tie tact. 

The rituals of relationships and courting was much different in my grandmothers day then they are now. Grandma always joked that she married Papaw because he had the fasted horse. :) 

Grandma in May of 1958