Family Treasure

Family Treasure

We have been living in my grandparent's old 1800's farmhouse for the past twenty years, but with two growing children and farm chores we hadn't really gotten around to looking through all of the nooks and crannies.

When the Covid Pandemic hit and my husband was unable to work for a while we decided what better time to explore the expansive attic area.

I always remembered that the third step was a bit wobbly so we decided we better fix it if we were going to be making frequent trips up there. Before nailing it in place, we decided to take a peek. Lo, and behold under the step was a "Franklin Cane Sugar" bag with a piano book in it titled "Masterpieces Vol. 2".

Needless to say, it piqued our interest, and we headed back downstairs to where the late 1800's piano sat, where it has for so long, hardly touched due to it needing retuning.

When we began playing the first song in the book, we heard a thump come from inside the piano. We opened the top but didn't see anything out of place. My son decided to crawl underneath and noticed what appeared to be a door that opened into the bottom of the piano. We got it open and inside was an old wooden screwdriver with the number 3135 engraved on it.

With such a vague clue we decided to Google 3135 and discovered a post that mentioned that 3135 was the phone number for our area back in the day. So back to the attic we went.

We had seen the phone up there before. It was old and dusty. We got it out and cleaned it up. And wouldn't you know it, right on the front were the numbers 3135. "Now what do we do with the screwdriver?" I asked my husband. "Look right there on the front" he replied. There it was, one lonely flat head screw, and once removed the front of the phone opened to reveal a small key.

We had run across multiple items in the house that required keys but only one that we had been unable to open... my grandfather's old writing desk.

My son got the honor of turning the key and the drawer came open. And inside there was... nothing, or so we thought. "Maybe the clue is behind the drawer" my husband offered. He began sliding the drawer out and we noticed there was a small hidden compartment at the back of the drawer. Inside was our next clues, a box cutter, and an old record.

This record was a bit odd, thicker than a normal record. We headed back up to the attic where we knew there were multiple old record players. The third one was a charm, we put in a new needle and played the record. It was a message... "You have made it this far so don't give up now... behind the flowers pink and blue is a door that will lead you to..." And the recording stopped.

So the search was on for the pink and blue flowers. "Could it be this old wallpaper"? Asked my son. "It's worth a shot" I reply. "And we already have the box cutter" my husband chimes in. The next hour is spent removing the old crumbly wallpaper from the front hallway. It had needed to be done for years anyway and the old rough-cut lumber underneath looked amazing.

We were beginning to get disappointed when my son noticed something out of place near the floor. It was a small square piece of wood that resembled a door. Sure enough, it popped right open, and inside was a small void, and inside the void was a little black book.

There was only writing on the first page of the book, and of course, it was a riddle:

Watch your step

The placement is odd.

The item you seek

Is under the sod.

But it isn't that easy

You will need tools.

It is very well protected

Because we were no fools.

We all immediately knew what step they were referring to, for some odd reason, the step out the side door sits back under our porch so that there are only about 4 inches sticking out to put your foot on. So we began to dig in front of the step. Our digging stopped abruptly when we hit an old cement slab buried a few inches under the sod. "We are going to need some better tools," my husband said. So he went and grabbed a crowbar and a big mallet from the shed.

"Now we're getting somewhere," said my son. We chipped away at the cement for about thirty minutes when we finally were able to see into the opening below. We grabbed a flashlight and couldn't believe our eyes when we saw an old copper still.

We managed to get it up out of the ground but it was a bit of a struggle, so heavy. We gently open it and immediately know why...$20,000 worth of gold coins!

So I guess this pandemic hasn't been all bad. We got to go on a great adventure as a family without even having to leave home. And we still haven't checked out all of the nooks and crannies.