Sunday, August 21, 2022

Treasure between the pages

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. 

This was the source of my most recent finds. If the looks familiar, it's because it was in the previous post. I came across one of the items while doing a cursory check of the pages (looking for any noticeable damage) at the store, but didn't find the other until I started reading it. Oh, and as a quick aside, don't ever buy this book, it's the absolute shits. It's yet another book that focuses more on the author's 'journey', than it does the actual stories. And this was the worst of those that I've encountered to date. Consider this a PSA.

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 😉.

8 comments:

  1. Don't think I've ever found money in a book... but I did find 1967 Topps Posters of Mantle and Mays in a Legends magazine I bought at the flea market years ago.

    Side note... I just inherited a huge collection of comic books that included a ton of trade paper backs and hard covers. I never once even thought of opening them up to see if there was any cash hidden. Doubt I ever will either, so whoever buys them or inherits them from me might just get lucky.

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    1. I think I remember that, too!

      Cash hidden in comic books might be a new one. Hopefully you're gonna be posting about this collection at some point.

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  2. Very cool. I've found shopping lists, very recent receipts, etc. Best find by far was when I was a kid (teenager?) and found a 1982 Drake's Terry Kennedy in a library book. It was my oldest Drake's card for a long time.

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    1. That's pretty neat. I've never found anything in a library book before. Now that I'm thinking about it, if I could go back in time, I think I'd start putting fun stuff in library books for the next person to find. I suppose I could still do it now, but I don't know if it would as fun, and/or appreciated as much.

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  3. Those tickets are excellent! Hard to choose which I like better, but I think you're onto something with your family road trip theory.

    Like Fuji, I don't think I've ever found money in a book. However, years ago I remember putting a couple of Canadian bills that I'd brought home from a trip to Vancouver in one of my books, and now I don't remember which book the bills are in...

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    1. Given the current exchange rate, you could be sitting on many cents and not even know about it :)

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  4. Neat story. I've never found anything like that but did have a friend who bought a shelf full of books at an estate sale for $25. He is a history buff and most of the titles were military history. When he opened the copy of the Band of Brothers book he purchased, it was signed by 25 members of the unit. That was cool. Some of the autographs were obvious. Some we had to research to find the right guy but we identified them all. That was cool.

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    1. People knowingly, and unknowingly, buying autographed books at sales is fairly common, I myself have unknowingly bought a few, but I've never heard of someone finding one with that many signatures in it. I would have to think that that was quite the find for someone who's interested in that sort of thing.

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Catching up (and other random musings): Part 2

You'd never know it, but I had intended to send this post out into the world about a week after the last one. Obviously that didn't ...