My old trunk lives on in film

We've been getting rid of some old stuff on craigslist lately, mainly old furniture as a result of redoing our office. Among these items was my old trunk. My sisters had similar "foot locker" style trunks they used in college, so when it came time for me to start college, my parents found me one at a garage sale. We painted it black, filled it with stuff, and I hauled it out to Wisconsin for college career. As a central part of my dorm, it served me well as junk drawer, foot rest, coffee table, step stool, extra desk space, kitchen table, the list goes on...

In the years since college it remained mostly unused except for holding the occasional odd item I needed that was stashed away in there. So when we were looking to clear out some things from the house, we decided to post it up for sale on Craigslist. Similar trunks were going for $20 to $30, so we posted mine for $25. About a week later I was contacted by someone interested in the trunk and we set up a time on a Saturday afternoon.

He was very interested in the trunk and had asked a lot of specific questions about it on the phone earlier in the day. The man that arrived showed up with his dog, excited and barking. After putting the dog back in the truck, he then tells me they are shooting a world war 2 movie and they need an authentic foot locker. The producers had managed to borrow one from a member of the MN Red Bulls unit to shoot some trailer footage, but the owner wouldn't let them paint over some of the Red Bulls insignias and the like, so they needed one of their own on a limited budget. He was very happy about the handles on my trunk. Apparently he had looked at several trunks that day and most had broken or missing handles. This was important because he said there was an important scene where a young boy was supposed to pick up and carry the trunk by the handles. By this time I was pretty impressed with the story and was happy I apparently had the "perfect" trunk. All it needed was some repainting for their movie. He gave me the cash and started going on that his producers would want to know what he spent the money on, and how he would need to write up a bill of sale for the must-have $25 Craigslist trunk. He was thrilled with my tough old trunk and hauled it away.

After leaving, I wrote back to him by email and asked if he could tell me more about the production. The movie is called "Souvenirs". As I read about the movie and read some articles about the production everything made sense that my buyer had told me earlier. The movie is the fictional story of a Minnesota boy who finds his grandpa's old army foot locker full of "souvenirs" of the war, which gets his grandpa to open up about his experience. The grandson then grows up to fight in Iraq. While some of the press I read made it out to be a relatively low budget film, they still managed to bring in a notable actor James Cromwell due in part to his son (also in the movie) living in MN himself, and they'll be able to get some authentic army drills and equipment on film due to some cooperation with the local armed forces.

Since selling the trunk I've been keeping an eye on the production, and have started noticing stories about the movie showing up on local news. While obviously I have little to do with the movie, as a community theatre actor & singer I think it's really cool to have played even a small part in a serious film. I wish them good luck with the production and hope to see it when it's released, if for no other reason than to see my trusty old college trunk. Filming starts soon.

Links:
Official Souvenirs Website
Souvenirs Facebook page