Buried Treasure

When I’m flipping channels on TV, I occasionally get stuck watching National Geographic or The History Channel for hours. Okay, that seems to happen more often than not, but who counts? But anyway, on both channels, there’s always shows with the concept of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” People are always searching through their houses for junk that may be of value and trying to get money out of it. It’s actually amazing what people find hiding in their houses sometimes.

This past weekend and a couple before it, my family’s been cleaning out my great aunt’s house and finding all sorts of old stuff. A lot of it has no value, some of it was trash. But then there was the stuff that had a lot of value whether it be monetary or sentimental. But searching through the worthless stuff makes finding the valuable stuff all the better.

My great Aunt Evelyn had a house and a shed full of stuff, partially because of how long she lived in this particular house, and partially because she would forget that she had things, so instead of search for them, she would just go out and buy more. While it wasn’t quite like an episode of Hoarders, I never imagined having so much stuff in such a small space. I realize that so far, I’ve used the word “stuff” more than anyone ever should in one small narrative, but that’s really the only good description to encompass the random conglomeration of items all combined at this residence. Like I said, some had value, some didn’t. It was all randomly assorted. We spent time sifting through boxes and bags, laughing at some of the old memories and even being shocked at some of the finds. We cleaned out the kitchen cupboards and pantry and found more extremely expired food than I ever want to see again. For instance, this is 23-year-old ketchup:



Notice how it’s almost black in color…and it was practically liquefied. As tempted as I was, no, I did not open it and smell it.

The rest of the time, I felt like I was in my very own episode of American Pickers. I felt like an explorer in someone’s house, trying to salvage something valuable, or at least worthy of Goodwill. There was an endless parade of homemade crafts, clothes, and little odds and ends. Here were some of the interesting finds:



Portable speakers attached to a cassette player. Unfortunately I didn’t see what cassette was still in it, or if it still worked. My uncle told me to put it with my 8-track player.



Oil lamp (which had a glass top until my grandpa accidentally held it up to show everyone and it wasn’t securely attached…), bundt cake pan, grab bar for a shower, homemade doilies, Tupperware, and other assorted goodies heading to Goodwill.



Gigantic roast pan and a motion detecting security light.



Abalone shell seahorse.

Among the other random finds were a huge Jesus tapestry and my great grandmother’s immigration card from 1909. I didn’t take pictures of those, but I should’ve, especially the immigration card. That was actually a pretty cool piece of family history. At the risk of sounding corny, the best buried treasure we found was just the time spent together going through all those memories. I hardly get to see some of my family, so it was nice just to see them and look through ridiculous artifacts with them. The fact that they were there put more value on items that I had deemed worthless. My grandpa got to keep his mother’s immigration card. My uncle got to put on a weird frilly yarn hat and tell us “Don’t worry, be happy. The guy who wrote that killed himself.” I got to see things my great aunt took the time to make and we got to pass them down and keep the heirlooms going. Things like that are more valuable than any ancient artifact or piece of American history any day.

Have you ever taken the time to just dig through old stuff? Do you have any great memories buried away in your house, waiting to be rediscovered? What would you want people to find in your house when you’re gone?