I can't remember when it was, other than to say that it was probably a couple of decades ago now, and I don't remember if I read about it, or if I heard the story on the radio, but at some point a couple bought a box of old books at either an auction or an estate sale, took them home, then while going through them some days later, found that the majority of the books had money (of the paper variety) hidden in-between the pages.
This particular incident wasn't that unique, as people hiding money in books was, well, I don't want to say that it was a common practice, but it wasn't uncommon either. Many people who were alive during The Great Depression never got over their distrust for banks, and would therefor hide money around their homes for safekeeping. Some folks hid it under their mattresses, some under loose floorboards, some buried out in the yard in either a jar or coffee can, and for those who were avid readers or who had a library, books offered a safe (in their mind) place to keep their money. Many people have found money hidden in strange (to them) places around the homes of their recently deceased loved ones over the years. And then of course sometimes they don't, but the next person who owns the house, does, usually while renovating or digging out in the yard.
Getting back to that old story, despite it not being that rare of an occurrence, the possibility of such a happening must've been a new to a lot of people at the time, because it caused a bit of a fervor. I vaguely recall a follow-up story in which people were now buying old books at sales by the boxful in hopes of "striking it rich". Looking back, it might seem silly to some, but I can only think that such a story today would cause the reaction to be a hundred-fold what it was all of those years ago. After all, this was before social media and 'trending'. People now are much more "monkey see, monkey doo-doo" than they were 30 years ago.
I'm sure that it has happened since, but I have no way of knowing how many other people have found books full of bills over the years (if they were smart, they didn't publicize it). Without ever having intentionally sought out to do so, I myself have found plenty of interesting things in books throughout the course of my life, though anything of great value, like say for instance, paper folding money, has eluded me thus far. More often than not, it's just old bookmarks or receipts, the latter of which being far more interesting than the former. I've found my share of newspaper clippings as well, which strangely enough, are often of recipes. That being said, I did recently find two things that were a tad bit different from the usual fare.
Back to the topic at hand, the stuff...
I don't know how long Dodge City has been a tourist attraction, but I'd have to think that curiosity seekers started showing up not too long after Wyatt Earp left. His story seems to have spread fast, which I'm assuming was due in large part to penny novels. There's a part of me that would like to go there, but than there's other part that says I probably wouldn't enjoy the commercialization of the town. Not too mention all of the dipshits and their cellphones. Nothing ruins an experience for me more than that.
The back of the ticket is pretty neat too, if only because it provides a general timeframe for when this ticket was purchased. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that the Pizza Hut's showed up after Wyatt's time. I've read my fair share about the old west, and don't recall anything about the Earp's ever stopping in to order a large pizza and a 2-liter to go on their way home from the saloon.
This was found a few pages later. Obviously I have no way of knowing, but I'd like to think that these stubs came from a family's road-trip back in 1983 or '84. And of course they had to be traveling via a station wagon, a family traveling in anything else during this time period would be a massive disappointment. I'm not sure if it's the same boat (looks like it though), but Google tells me that there's still a Mark Twain riverboat operating in Hannibal.
I will not be keeping the book that these came from, and haven't yet decided what to do with the tickets themselves. If I had been a smart and/or interesting person, I would've started a scrapbook for such items many years ago, but alas, I am neither of those things; so I didn't. I could certainly start one now, but I don't know if it would be worth it at this point and time, especially since I haven't saved any of my previously found items. I guess I'll have to think about it.
I've never gone out of my way to look for things in books, and don't ever plan to start. That being said though, I wouldn't be opposed to finding a forgotten C-note in between the pages of a purchased book one of these days 😉.
