Turn now to a strangely haunting legend right here at Goshen College: retold by Jeffrey Moore after conversations with Joe Springer at the MHL and Jodi Beyeler from Public Relations.
Once there was the basement of Kulp. In the basement of Kulp there was a fireplace. In the fireplace in the basement of Kulp there was a secret shelf – one you could only find by standing up inside the fireplace. On the secret shelf in the fireplace in the basement of Kulp there was a book. And in that book in the secret space in the fireplace in the basement of Kulp there was a list of names.These were the names of every student who had ever found the secret book on the secret shelf in the fire place in the basement of Kulp.
It came to pass that the basement of Kulp was remodeled and the secret book was discovered. For many years it rested on Jodi Beyeler’s shelf in AD 26. She described it as an old, plainly bound book, about yearbook sized.
Sometime last year, when Jodi was cleaning, she decided that she was tired of having the old book in her office. She said that she “gave it to the archives.”
Joe Springer in the Mennonite Historical Library was unable to locate the book. He said, “I can’t say for sure that she didn’t give it to me. I can say for sure that I do not know where it is.”
Meanwhile, several inquiries at the Mennonite Church Archives behind Newcomer Center have failed to reveal the mysterious tome. It has, in every sense of the word, disappeared.
Where is it now? One must assume that it has found a new hiding place – a new secret compartment where someday a curious student will discover it and sign his or her name in its ancient pages.
