Was watching Extreme makeover home edition the other night. They were showing items found under the front porch of the house they were working on. One of the items was an old banjo. I thought this was pretty neat.
I myself have found an old bottle of beer from the 50s and an old shoe in walls.
I always write my name and date inside walls or some where on my construction.
Have any of you found anything neat while working on a house?
Kip
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Batimat 2024 featured a range of impressive construction tools, techniques, and more.
Featured Video
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
No Kip, but that question made me crack up thinking about all the stuff I put in the walls of the last house I lived in...we were drywalling the garage and I had to clean up a lot of clutter.....I started thinking "why walk it all the way to the street?".
There are baseball bats, garden hoses, hockey sticks, lumber, probably some tools...you know rakes, ice scrapers...etc.
The more we stuffed, the harder we laughed...the harder we laughed...the more we stuffed.!
I'd love to be there the day someone takes that drywall down!
blue
Warning! Be cautious when taking any advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, some of it is viewed as boogerin and not consistent with views of those who prefer to overbuild everything...including their own egos
Additionally, don't take any political advice from me. I'm just a parrot for the Republican talking points. I get all my news from Rush Limbaugh and Fox and Friends (they are funny...try them out)!
A friend of mine found a tuba buried underneath his porch. It had to be 100 years old. Whoever put it there must have had a good laugh, thinking about the day that someone would dig it up and say to themselves, "What the ####?"
My house was built in 1913. Inside the walls I've found a beer bottle and a Copenhagen can left over from the original carpenters, along with various old coins and other odd little bits and pieces of things. One time I found an ancient mouse skeleton...he must have been electrocuted by the knob and tube wiring, his nose was against one wire and his tail against the other.
One can of Reingold beer, one pack of Camels (unfiltered), three or four true detective magazines, two 50's era euro photo mags (notice a trend?), a Karma Sutra poster, ...
Oh, and on old bathrooms, the usual wall cavity filled with rusted double edge razor blades.
Ah yes, the cascading razor blades. =8-O
I had to open up a knee wall on the third floor for electrical work. A previous owner decided it was a great place to hide a few pieces of old rolled up carpetting, each about 12x20 ft. Wrestling those things out between rafter supports and through a 2 ft opening in the sheetrock and down the steps was not a pleasant chore.
Along with bits of newspaper, I found a perfectly functioning Yankee Screwdriver.
Renovating my previous home, a 1870 pioneer cottage in Salt Lake, I found blank presidential election ballots from 1896 (McKinley vs. ?). This was right after the 2000 election mess and I was hoping to find that they had been filled out and "lost". Alas, they were blank. And fell apart with the slightest touch.
Also found some black and white negatives from the turn of the century. I'm guessing on the age there.
Also found a heroin spoon and other paraphenalia. I think they were from a more recent era.
Oh, and then there was the vibratory device in the wooded area of the backyard.
I can't wait to tear into the walls of my new 1925 house!
Cheers
I found $35 in change, 20 yrs worth of assorted kids meal toys and a bunch of old dried up french fries when we replaced the local McDonald's front counter a few years ago.
Newspapers are some of the best to find, I think. I once found a bunch of papers crumpled up and stuffed in the wall as insulation. Most of them crumbled when we tried to straighten them out, but some were still legible. The election results and commentary from 1932. Interesting to see what people expected back then versus what we "know" now. And, as was already mentioned, seeing the ads and prices from that time. Very interesting.
Along the same lines, years ago my brother and I remodeled my grandfather's house. When he built the house, it was in the middle of farmland. Over the years the farmers left, replace by a golf course and bunches of new houses. His was the little gem in a sea of big, weekend homes for out-of-staters. Anyway, he had an old huge cast-iron fireplace insert that he had stuck into a beautiful fireplace. I don't know how he got it in there (or why). We took it out, but it was heavy! Four of us struggled for hours just to get it out the front door. We left it in the front yard for a couple of days not wanting to deal with it again. One day I go out and the fireplace is "gone" and in its place is a small hill, landscaped with some flowers planted on top. My brother had been busy with a shovel. Everyone thought the new landscaping looked great and asked no questions. Years later, after my grandfather died, my mom and aunt put the house up for sale. A nice couple bought it and a few months later I get a call from my aunt who wants to know if I know anything about a fireplace that is buried in the front yard. Seems that the new owners couldn't figure out why there was a hill in the front yard with flowers on it. They wanted to change it and that's when they found out why there was a hill in the front yard. Oh well, seemed like a good idea at the time.
Brad
A jazillion Riechmarks...
Tearing old WWII german buildings down it wasn't uncommon to Riechmarks stuffed in the walls as insulation...
1st time you come across this will get the heart pumping...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
I too have found the usual stuff: newspapers, HW store flyers/catalogs, small booze bottles. Most interesting wre a couple of coca cola calendars, poster-like, with pretty handpainted ladies, circa ~ 1909 & 1911, tacked to the inside of the sheathing, in good shape but now crumbly. Everybody who sees them goes ooh, ahh these are antiques... but, too dirty/dusty & crumbly for my taste. Also, a small US flag ~3x5", quite faded, but with only 48 stars!
I just wanted to bump this discussion up to the top again because I think it's one of the most interesting I've seen on this forum in awhile - anybody else have cool finds they want to share?
-Justin"If God didn't want me to wear this Led Zeppelin shirt everyday he wouldn't have made them rock out so hard"
Find... Yes...
Share... No...
Aready spent it...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
In the crawl space of my place, I've found many carbon stubs from arc lamps, and the remains of a small campfire, including a newspaper from May of 1926. The permit for building my place was pulled in July of 1926, so it looks like just before it was built, the vacant land was used for a night exterior scene in a silent western. The Robert Brunton studio was not far away, a few blocks Northeast, across Melrose ave. Brunton started in 1919, and was bought out by Famous Players/Lasky in 1926 when they changed their name to Paramount. Paramount is still there, and has expanded all the way down to Melrose.
-- J.S.
Friend of mine's Dad was of the opinion that someday the US banking and financial system would collapse etc etc and hid gold and silver coins and bullion throughout the house. They sold the house a few years ago, well after his passing and found most but, they're sure, not all of it. Someone's gonna have a heck of a story to tell I suspect...
Edited 11/2/2004 2:56 pm ET by PaulB
Man, this thread stinks.
In every last house I've helped rip filthy plaster and old urine stained carpet out of, I hever NEVER found a single thing worth taking home.
Y'all have just ticked me off.......Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have made a difference in the world. Marines don't have that problem. - [Ronald Reagan]
When I was in the local vounteer fire department we would get houses that had to be demolished so we would practice fire suppression in them for several days then burn them to the ground. We had a guy that would bring his metal detector to all of the house burns that we did. I remember this one where Mike had gone through the whole house looking for loot stashed in the walls and he found nothing. That is until it was reduced to cinders and we found this metal can sitting on what was left of a foundation. In the can a pile of greenish ashes and lots of gold and silver coins, boy was he mad that he had missed that one...SYSOP[email protected]
You're right. it is a mighty fine thread. yes, ui've fond a couple suprises over the years. here's the ones IO remember;
just this sumer. i was inspecting a house and the lady wanted to know if she had space to expand a room into an under-roof kneeswall space. The acecss to it was through a little 18" x 24" hatch and then arond a corner, crawling over some junk shoved into the hatch. Wjhen I got tto the end and around a corner, I broke out laughing. There was a fairly large space with a blanket, some candles, an ash tray, half a pack of camels, some roaches and raoch clip, and a couple centerfolds pinned up.
Once, I had a crew doing demo on the thrid floor and they came down for break laughing and grinning. Turns out that they had found a porn book/magazine that was pretty awful. I said how bad can irt be? and they told me, "believe it, you don't want to see this. It was published in Denmark"
of course, I only include those because I know your interest in publishing and the places it can take you, LOL
I haver found multiple liquor bottles, mostly incased in masonry. The mnost interesting was when we demoed the walk in safe in a bank built in 1906. The outer walls were triple tier brick and one corner of the bank had the safe built in with stone walls two feet thick besides the brick outer. The liquor bottle was between the two.
I had to remove a face stone from a fireplace in a restaurant that had once been a stagecoach stop in Hot Sulphur Springs, CO and found a long bone encased in the masonry there. The bone stayed and the stone went back in.
Then there was that loaded shotgun behind a veneer of wallpaper near an old man's bed...
and a pair of bamboo flip flops down the ballone framing in the servants quarters from the previous turn of the century.
That's all I remember right now.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
" also found some black and white negatives from the turn of the century.".
wow, that means that they are at least 4 years old,... wow!
the usual, coins, newspapers/mags, pictures, asst material boxes/wrappers, bottles and cans, sewing stuff,and the unusual.
7 shot gamblers gun, hand carved wood whistle, campaign buttons, blueprints of the house, tools or parts thereof, small toys and all that fall down balloon framed walls.Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
"wow, that means that they are at least 4 years old,... wow!"
Yeah, can you believe it?! They used to use film back then!
Renovating a home that had been an old folks home about twenty years before. Found 30+ beer bottles hidden in walls and suspended ceiling. Theorized that one of the residents was sneaking them and then hiding the evidence. I also found a wooden two-foot level in another part of the house in a lath&plaster ceiling. I don't know enough about antique tools to guess age. It is made of three separate pieces of wood with metal caps on ends holding them together. The vials have one line in the center and the plumb vial is stamped "This side up". It is still accurate enough to use but it sets on a shelf in my shop.
The last house I rebuilt was about 70 years old and we bought it from the original owner so there was plenty. It wasnt in the walls, but in the attic we found a newspaper with the Hindenburg explosion on the cover (to bad the mice found it first). Old simalac cans alot of old christmas cards and things like that. I always sign the walls before we close them up. We also leave a newspaper in there too.
I've found a crap load of stuff in walls but the most valuable(at least to me) thing is the building permit that Grant Wood(American Gothic artist) signed and nailed to the inside wall.
Found a painting of that particular house at the local art museum.
Doug
Like others I try to leave something for the next guy. Sometimes just right something about the job.
Edited 11/1/2004 10:08 pm ET by Doug@es
Found a post-card addressed to first residents of last home and the receipt for all the materials to build our current, 1940, home.
Have created a few surprises by accident by dropping hand-brooms and screwdrivers into gaps. There's presently a garden fan-rake in the cellulose in the attic that we just can't find. Figure it'll be easier to buy a new one.
Funny that I decided to register for these forums the day after I found something in a wall!
I was tearing out a basement in a house I bought a year ago and found a wallet containing $358! My wife suggested we track down the previous owner but I told her that we'll use it to paint the pink living room (with green carpet) and to help with the central air that died in August and the refrigerator one week before the a/c!!
Many years ago I was working in the basement of a Victorian brownstone rowhouse in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. I had to dig a footing to let in a post onto which would help support the old main beam of the house. I got down about two feet and uncovered two very old coins dated from the 1860's. I washed them off and later that day gave them to the homeowner. Some workman's pocket change probably, I think they were nickles.
Another time in the same neighborhood my work partner and I were taking down a sheetrock cieling and from between the rafters fell all this black leather S&M stuff. There was a whip and a pair of handcuff irons that were hanging from chains which were bolted to the rafters. There were also mirrors pieced in between the rafters.
I took down some door trim so it could be stripped of layers and layers of paint and refinished. My house was built in the 1920's and all the interior doors are skeleton key locks. Imagine my surprise when I took down the trim at the head of the door to find a nice skeleton key laying on top of the door frame. Can't quite figure out how it got there as the trim was nice and tight and there are no holes from the attic above. It doesn't function in any of the locks.....I keep hoping I find the buried treasure soon! I'm sure I'm sitting on millions somewhere.
Howdy
I have found numerous old newspapers, and read all of them that i could. It is just amazing what things cost in the 50's! In a mormon church, i found a perfectly preserved ( but empty ) 6 pack of coors cans with the original two holes, one big and one small, that you poked out with your finger (remember those?) Also, an old matchbox car with the beer cans (?). Another place in the same chruch, we found an autograph in keel of the carpenters, where they were from and the date (1970's). I found a cool cat skull with two holes in it where the dog or ? had bit it under a house--still got that. I think the most interesting thing i found was when remodeling a big old house built in 1917. I tore into an exterior wall and there, under the stucco stapled to the sheathing was a perfectly preserved permit from the " City Department of Electricity" signed and dated 1917. I carefully cut it out and gave it to the HO, who framed it and hung it up. It was very nicely printed and looked like an 'important document'.
Oh yeah, and a post card from a lady who was visiting in NYC during 1942. It was addressed to the house we were remodeling. She was very worried about being bombed before she could come back to CA!
Edited 11/1/2004 10:59 pm ET by robzan
3 things come to mind.
the sickest was a few colonies of dead mice in a house out in the country. I counted 36 dead mice bodies before I stopped counting...
the wierdest...took out a cabinet in a bath remodel and in the toe kick area was hidden some 70's bondage crap, pictures in B&W a pamphlet on the subject and a 10 page typed paper about how this guy wanted to be tied up/bound and "treated" by his women....
and yeah I read all 10 pages... twice....
the coolest was while doing some beaded soffit repair work and up inside were old newspapers dating back various times, late 30's to early 40's if I recall correctly... the top page of the papers were to smudged and blackened but you could still read the inner pages, interesting old articles and cool old car ad's.
Finding magazines was my entertainment while working on one house. Based on their dates, it must have been the po (certainly hadn't been there for decades).
There was sports illustrated swimsuit in the garage wall, Penthouse in the MBR closet wall, some off-brand porn mag under the MBR closet carpet, a plastic grocery bag with 2 or 3 porn mags in the space between the MBA vanity and shower stall (found them when I ripped the shower stall out, but they could probably be reached via the access hole under the vanity).
That was the high point of the renovation. jt8
Found an old pepsi bottle in the wall of my own house.
Wierdest and or sickest I found was back in 1981. I found 3 used condoms, rolling papers and some burnt wooden matches behind the access panel behind the bath tub. The panel was screwed up using slotted screws and I knew know one hand been living in this house for the last 15 years. EEWWW!
Can't wait for the guy from Amityville to post...
:-)
tony b.
commercial remodel, taking ceiling panels down
a plastic bag w/GAP on it (the store) fell down
and inside was $1400.00 dollars in various denominations
Did a job in Queens NY years ago and found an old pistol in a secret compartment.
I heard the guy that lived there years ago was blind so my guess was he had it for protection.
You'd think in my circa:1680 house I'm working on ...with all the excavating and tearing down old crumbling walls I mighta found something.nope.just a few old bottles......but being that old.who ever was here before me......probably dozens upon dozens beat me to any good stuff.
####
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.
—Robert Louis Stevenson
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
When I was a kid,around12, my old man asked me to dismantle and remove an old floor furnace. I found a ton of coins, mostly pennys. After that I volunteered to take everyone out he came across. I never found as much money as I did that first time. He admitted years later he had 'Chumed' the furnace to motivate me.
Mostly mouse and squirrel nests, plus construction debris (why haul it to the dump, if we can drop it down the walls?)
Still looking for the money.
Found some MA Senate dockets (former owner was Senator), though badly chewed. Old political ads. Train tickets from the '20s. Some postcards. Silver spoons and forks.
Lots of bottles of hooch from prohibition days. The stable hands living in my carriage house indulged a little. Lots of tincture of ginger and vanilla, which was legal drugstore hooch. Some still have liquid in them. Lots of unlabeled bottles from the still. Under the stable, there are hundreds of them, mostly broken.
Also found some DDT and a pump duster. Gallons paint cans from "marathon lead and paint co". Guess I can get the original colors for my house this way.
I have found many items. Old tin beer bottles, found a bunch of old bottles under a wood floor in a crawl space. Whisky bottles. 4 crystal shot glasses still in the original wrappers. Coins. Nude shots of the previous owners/occupants. Letters. Newspapers and magazines. A few tools.
One couple I know tore off wall paper and found the family of 7 that owned the house before (in the 30s) had signed and dated the wall in one spot. They wanted to paint but didn't want to give that up so I suggested they frame it, they did, looked neat. DanT
I found a wedding photo album when I pulled down some ceiling panels just after we bought our house. Turns out it was from the previous owner's first marriage. I contacted the real estate agent to ask if the guy would want it, but she said to toss it out. Wonder if he or the ex-wife stuffed it up there in the ceiling?
This sparked an old memory. When I was 14 in 1967 my two cousins and I got into a house they were going to demolish the next day. We found in a back basement closet a shoe box full of old Disneyland tickets and 5 old Playboys. That was a great day.
My cousins went to Disneyland and they excepted the tickets. I got the Playboys. My cousins had fun for a day, my fun lasted a lot longer.
Edited 11/2/2004 2:22 pm ET by JAGWAH
we found a large stash of '70's era gay porn, but i don't know if you consider that neat-o or not.
another house we found some old cancelled checks from the turn of the century from the owner of the house (then candy factory) for such items as "ice delivery". there was also a recipe for a love potion.
I removed door trim to install new jambs and door, found a shotgun laying upright against trimmer stud. I had wondered why the old trim was unusually wide, the piece in front of the shotgun was nailed on with two 4d finish nails. The rest was nailed up normally.Homeowner said the shotgun was her fathers, the shotgun had been there at least 11 years.She asked me to check all the door openings for loose trim as she has young children in the house.Didn't find any more guns but did find a cardboard carton with $390.00 in it. The young lady was thrilled, tried to give me $90.00 but I wouldn't take it.
mike
The young lady was thrilled, tried to give me $90.00 but I wouldn't take it.
FINALLY !!!!!
Took 41 posts to see this.
Good for you, Mike.
:)
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
I cut a whole in a wall for an air conditioner on the third floor of a three family house. Hanging right there on a nail on the inside of the sheathing was a framed picture of Jesus Christ. Made my hair stand up!
I was tearing out the wood paneling in my parents basement so we could sheetrock. They had bought the house from a close family friend who's husband had built it in 1967. He died two years after they moved in. On the back of one of the panels I found a date and his signature and the message "for my wife and children"
I cut it out and my mother passed it along to our friend, big tears.
Wouldn't that surprise ya!!!
I haven't found anything in my travels but when I trim a home I ususally thro a business card in the fireplace somewhere (where it won't burn!) and write a short notre on the back asking the finder to find my descendants and give them my card !!!1
Kinda reminds me of my own mortality.....First we get good- then we get fast !
Found an 1830 coin sitting on a sill, but usually I leave stuff. I work on many 18th century homes rebuilding /restoring fireplaces and chimneys. All during the process I take pictures with my digital camera along with some digital video. Just before I crown the chimney I burn all pics and video onto a cd and place it in the chimney. Somebody will get a kick out of it someday.
Those metal AOL cd mailers come in handy for this.
Rod
Use film ;) ... you think in 100 yrs anyone will be able to read an ancient CD? Betcha not... we print old glass plate negs every day from 100 + years ago, no problem.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=21871.1
That's funny! My son and I are doing a bath remodel in a bath built around 1942.
We've found lotsa newspapers and done some intersting reading. I'm gonna post here when I get the chance to put the pis together.
We've put some neatly wrapped recent newspapers under the tub, along with my buss. card and some political paraphenelia from the recent election.
Tomrorrow; before I float the mud floor we will put tomorrows paper with the election results under the tub with the others.
Should make some interesting readin for someone else.
Oh!! The CD thing...........fast forward 60 yrs..........carp finds cd, what the heck is this thing??
Helper:. I don't have a clue................it's cool the way the light reflects off it though........I'm gonna hang it off my rearview mirror dude!!
EricI Love A Hand That Meets My Own,
With A Hold That Causes Some Sensation.
An amateur artist-lady in our neighborhood years ago painted a scene from Michaelangelo's Cistine Chapel ceiling--God touching Adam's finger--on the stucco wall of her front porch. She moved on. Next owner couldn't stand it, couldn't stand to paint it over, so he paneled over it. Thirty years ago now--and eventually some remodeler or wrecking crew will open it up for a great surprise.
Kip,
I was doing a remodel that involved a wall removal and for beam support they wanted a "barn beam" complete with oak pins and corner braces. I found the beam and corner braces. One end worked out, but I had to custom fit the brace at the other end.
In the course of plaster removal I found a long firmer chisel inside the wall. I was chiseling out the mortise for the corner brace and ran out of chisel, then it occurred to me to use the long "wall chisel" to finish.
Nothing exciting inside my 1926 house but outside....
an small empty square bottle of Dr Smith's Pills
a copper bracelet
a small sterling silver ring w/a tigereye in it
marbles
I'm waiting to find the gold bullion.Whatever Loooolaaaa wantssss, Looolaaa getssssss
Your real name wouldn't be Lola, would it?
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Well, never found anything in my wanderings. But - I left something for the next owner of my house. It is a msg in the access panel on the back of the face wall of the shower. Lets you access ALL the plumbing w/o destroying any tile. It says: (Ahem!) "If you can't figure out how to remove the shower fixtures without screwing up the tile, you are too stupid to either own or work on this house!" Signed Don Reinhard, Builder, June 2002.The GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!
Doing the butler's pantry restoration in first house I restored, we found a 1927 bottle of french wine, a Barsac, that had been carefully left on its side and secured in the wall. It was past drinking, but makes a great piece for my wine cellar. Since then, I have left a bottle in each of my houses.
SHG
My old place..had a LOT of rusty hammer heads. Lead balls. A ton of old bottles, pennies galore, dessicated rats, a piec of 1x3 T&G with the name of a previous owner on it from the lumber yard.
I just found a neat early type charge card from Sears and Roebuck in the piano..no mag strip on that baby.
silverware every where (pack rats?), neat old cloth used to seal gaps around the windows..hand woven I think.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Sphere: I carry one of those Sears cards in my wallet - a real challenge to them every time I want to use it! Sort of a dinosaur thing w/ me.
DonThe GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!
Speaking of charge cards, my SIL's father had an old American Express card - it was paper!!!! Funny thing is, when she was younger, he got her a card on his account, so her card says "member since 1957", which is cool, since she wasn't born then.
Now back to the regular topic .
I worked up in Dawson City in the 70's in one old two story log house that we renovated for the Department of Fish and Game we found an old jacket used to chink between the logs and a window checking the pockets we found an old five pound English note.
On another house being renovated my friend found two very old hand planes. I have often thought how that carpenter must have searched high and low for his tools.
In a bar in Whitehorse there is this petrified cat, that was found in the crawl space during a renovation, laying in a glass covered case on the bar.
In another bar in Dawson City there is an initiation called the "sour toe cocktail". A toe was dicovered in a cabin, some poor guy cut off his own frozen toe and he preserved it in alcohol. To make a long story short you can now have a drink with the toe in it and you will get a certificate. From time to time they have to put a notice out for a new one because the toe gets swallowed.
> In a bar in Whitehorse there is this petrified cat, that was found in the crawl space
Hell, I've got one of those in my crawl space. Anybody want it? ;-)
-- J.S.
LOL. No indeedy, my real name is rather pedestrian but you have my permission to dream, if you like <g>.
NPR had a segment in which they played this song(I'd never heard it before-kindof liked it). Reminds me of the original Santa Baby (the one sung by the incomparable Eartha Kitt - who was THE BEST Catwoman) and Fever(sung by Peggy Lee?).Whatever Loooolaaaa wantssss, Looolaaa getssssss
best thing left ...
working with my buddy Joe ... he grabs a scrap and my pencil ...
he's just about finished building a really nice built in bench in a basement remodel ...
writes ''why the hell did U F'er tear apart my beautiful bench" signed and dated ...
best find ... a garage. on the top step of a ladder ... my Dad and his buddy(the owner) below ... I'm patching the roof from below before I'm willing to walk on it from above .. at the same time ... doing rafter cleaning ....
up high ... in a rafter bay ... up by the ridge ...
I find an old burlap "wrap" ... looks older than the garage itself ...
I'm on top of the ladder ... figure I'll unwrap it before I toss it ...
and find a sawed off shot gun.
say ... "Hey, what's this doing here" ....
the owner ... an old time bar owner ...
after a string of swear words ...
says ... "wrap that damn thing back up and hide it better!"
I did.
rewrapped it ... and boxed it in.
I could probably call crime stoppers and solve an old murder ....
but ... my prints are on it now!
btw ... if U are a crime stopper ... I just made that all up.
Jeff
Was doing some SWAT Team training about a year ago in a rural town in NJ and was inside an old abandoned house. While killing time waiting for the team to make their entry I was going through the medicine chest in the bathroom and found numerous filled prescription bottles from the 30's and 40's. Most were hand written and were for drugs that haven't been used in years. One, however, was filled by a pharmacist who happened to be my neighbor when I was a boy (this guy was about 90 THEN!)...and I lived no where near this old house!
The old (1790's) section of my house has a box cornice which had become filled w/ squirrel & bird nests. I decided to clean it out while I was trying to seal it up so bats etc. couldn't get in. Crawling on my belly reaching out & down to the soffit, I grabbed handfuls and laid 'em on the attic floor to gather up when I had a chance to stand up. I just happened to see some little wooden blocks which turned out to be hand made & painted dominoes. They must have been stored up there and over time fell out and got swept into the cornice. Really neat things, it pays to watch what yer doin'! I even went through stuff I'd already hauled out & found a couple more.
Also found 1810 dime, various skeletons & skulls, and a newspaper from the 1930s warning about some guy named Hitler.
Have an old show workers house from the 1860s (or previous -- that's the earliest we can trace the deed). Found lots of kids toys, half a doll, old show leather work, an 1858 flying eagle coin (it was worth something, I understand, except I used metal cleaner just to figure out what it was -- I leave it for my kids, maybe it will be worth something again in 60 years). Most of the stuff I found were things the mice dragged into the walls for their nests.
My neighbors across the street, though, found an old time capsule -- kids and adults clothes, personal effects, even an old newspaper talking about Lincoln getting shot or something. It was under the floor boards in their attic. Told them they could open their own wing in our tiny little historical society in town.
Oh! Almost forgot -- we found lots and lots of broken pottery in the back yard -- all buried and stuff. We live in an old Native American settled area (first town of "Praying Indians" as they were called), so we wondered if it was that, but then people who lived here a long time said it was just the habit of the misses of the house about 40 years ago to throw pots, vases and such at the Mr. of the house. They'd sweep it up, and bury it in the yard the next day.
Edited 11/8/2004 9:27 pm ET by Bill
A live rat.
An intact hand hewn oak peg that was driven through a mortise/tenon joint in two parts of a hand hewn, but rotted out, oak log rim joist. Guess that was really in the floor system, not the wall.
A very old, but alas, empty whiskey bottle.
You're unique! Just like everyone else! Scott Adams