Treasures

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Here’s one of those stories that’s everyone’s fantasy come true. Finding a stash of old money in an old basement, a mystery surrounding its origin, the key as to why Brittney Spears shaved her head…OK, not that last part but it has everything else.

I mean, I can remember as a kid searching the vast attic space of my aunt’s house as a kid looking for similar treasure. And while I never struck it rich like the gentleman in the SJ-R story, some of the things I did come across were as exciting as money to me at the time. Things like a Nazi belt a relative have brought back from WWII, gas rationing stamps form the same era, old letters from relatives, business receipts from my grandmother’s business (a movie theater no less!), photos, clothes, military uniforms and even a 48-star flag.

My aunt’s attic was huge. It easily could have been turned into an apartment with high ceilings and a turret room at one of the corners. In fact her house was a very large old house that had been turned into several apartments. The attic, we were told used to be a place where even dances were held. By the time I became familiar with it in the early 1970s, it was used strictly for storage.

Strange thing was though, whenever I’d go up there (every chance I could) I would get this overwhelming feeling of being back in the 1940s. Of course, I was too young to have known first-hand what that was like but upon walking into that attic I was enveloped in the feeling of being in a different time. It was a presence, the closest thing to having seen a ghost as I’ve ever experienced. In terms I was familiar with at the time, I felt like I had entered the Twilight Zone. Wow, I miss that.

So it’s kind of cool to see a story like the one in the SJ-R today that essentially has a grounded adult professional living what surely must have been a childhood, if not adulthood, dream.

Update: Hey, I just remembered: I did once find money in my aunt’s attic. I came across a piece of Nazi German script and a Soviet bill of some sort. Obviously war souvenirs from the Second World War. I still have those, in fact.