Skippy Question

Skippy said:

Ernie, this is an aside to the philosopherings here.

I'd be curious to know from you and your readers, what's the most interesting thing you've ever discovered or found? You've discussed treasure, the Shelter Cove and King's Peak stories, the Brother Jonathan, fossils and arrowheads, but surely you-- or readers-- have your own interesting finds? Here's some examples.

I remember an out-of-work father restoring old pianos on the side so his family could get by. He found $2,000 inside one of his player pianos: 1930 era bills in a brown paper bag stashed underneath the hood. That came in handy.

Years ago, a Eureka watch and clock repair business, The Oldtimer, showed me his unusual find of the day: an 1848 Scottish will, elaborately written on a sheepskin parchment with a wax seal stamping, found behind the old grandfather clock he was tinkering on. "That's not unusual, clocks were a common place that everyone hid their stuff in," he said, "as well as in Prince Albert cans on strings lowered in walls behind the light sockets, down gas tanks of junked cars, or behind a removable stone of an outside wall. Usually the hiding place is where the keeper can keep an eye on it from the master bedroom," he said.

A friend dug up a rotting leather pouch holding silver coins from the early 1900s on his California Street property, encased in rhododendron roots. Another found two silver dollars at Sequoia Park using his metal detector. Our local thrift stores have their own stories of money rolls and jewelry 'left forgotten in the pockets of donated clothing all the time.' While not truly treasure, another friend found a large, handmade brass ring hanging to a rotting fence post of an Arcata pasture. "It was used in oxen's noses," he said, that being the most likely and interesting of all answers to believe. An acquaintance restoring an old oak desk bought from a hotel discovered-- to his horror-- a long-lost suicide note stuck inside giving him both the willies and the heebie-jeebies. Of course, Petrolia residents still remember marijuana bales washing up onto the beach one day in the mid 70s.

Beyond the normal clay marbles, glass bottles, and an occasional rusty object like railroad nails and horseshoes, has yours truly discovered anything interesting? One day was a spectacular one in memory, Ernie. While digging a garden, I hit something hard, solid, and deep with the shovel. Whatever it was, it wouldn't budge and nearly crimped the shovel. A careful excavation revealed a seriously large and heavy ingot buried several feet in the ground. Brought to the surface, it was shiny and silver colored, encrusted with dirt, shaped like a brick with curved edges, and weighing several pounds. Yahoo! I couldn't believe it. Skippy hit the mother lode: a silver ingot! Skip's heart stopped knowing his ship had finally come in.

But those visions of sugarplum fairies soon faded. Cleaned off and examined more closely, it certainlywas an ingot all right... but it was a lead ingot. A wiser and older gentleman explained these things were commonly used for the soldering of plumbing pipes; apparently workmen discarded it after finishing their building project long ago. Sigh. So close and yet so far. Skippy kept his day job.

Ernie, perhaps you, readers, Charlie 2 crows, Oregon, olmanriver-- even Suzy Blah Blah!--have their own treasure story or discovery to tell? I bet so. Just a thought for some future summertime musings.

(sorry so long and off-topic here; my e-mail isn't working to send this to you otherwise.)

Skippy, It sounds like a lot of fun, but I can't help but think that you are not going to find too many valuable finds out there. The most "treasures" that I have found have been things like old horseshoes or a hand forged gate hinge. I used to work for a guy that had a second-hand goods store. He went to the auction yard every week thinking that he was going to run across some undiscovered treasure. Sometimes he would find something a little bit unique, something that he could maybe make some money on, but in most all cases he ended up paying too much for the item, and then his wife would fall in love with it and take it home. He mostly lost his butt. 

You might believe this if you knew me better, but my biggest treasure is a well told history tale. It doesn't have to be a true story, because the legends that rise out of stories handed down from generation to generation are going to have a direction of their own, and soon get bigger than life itself. Some of the stories that I treasure the most are stories that I can only pass on to my family or a very trusted friend. I know stories about family history that explains why some families don't exactly look like the rest of the family. Stories that the family itself doesn't know. I know stories about historical happenings that the descendants don't want to be known, nor do I blame them, the descendants of the perceived miscreants are not treated very well even though they are not to blame themselves. People can be vicious. Somehow they feel that it is fair to judge people by today's standards. 

The really good stories are the ones that have many different versions. I always like a good story, and I very much encourage people to tell me their stories. I prefer to talk to the teller of the story, just between the two of us, because in my experience anybody else will always interrupt with an opinion or their version of the "truth". I hate that! Sometimes the version that I'm hearing the latest has a better ring of truth than the twice told tale. I've learned a lot being a good listener. sometimes when I'm being sceptical inside, some piece of the tale will come around with a ring of truth that I would have never gotten if I had interrupted. Even when I know that the story that I'm hearing can't be true, they can be darn fine stories.

So, if anybody's willing, they can tell us about the best treasure that they have ever found. In lieu of that tell me your best tall tale... But remember, the truth doesn't have to count, unless you want it to.

Found in creek by an Ernie's Place commenter