You think you and your grandfather aren't susceptible to the "telephone game" and "treasure hysteria" ? Consider the following true story:
How the telephone game can go awry, even from first-hand witnesses:
A buddy of mine was working sidewalk tearouts in an old-town district. Every few days, they tore out another section of old town sidewalk. But because they filled it with concrete the very same day, my friend had to be there right-during their lunch hour to hunt the dirt.
The workers were enthralled at his daily take of seateds, barbers, tokens, etc... He'd show them as they returned from lunch. One day he found an owl-shaped amulet charm thing. It was gold colored, and had red jewels for the eyes. As he showed it to the curious workers, he mused "it might be gold" (based on the color). And it probably dates to the 1800s (based on the age of the coins he'd found in the area). And "the eyes might be rubies", etc....
That night, at home, as he cleaned and inspected his finds, he studied the owl charm thing. Turns out that it was just cheap costume gold plated jewelry from the 1920s. And the red-jeweled eyes were just red glass chip.
The next day, he was out there again doing his thing. A new driver of heavy equipment was eyeing him intently. The worker finally got the nerve to come over and ask what he'd found. My friend told him that he'd found nothing but junk that day.
The worker launched into stories of how, the day before, that another md'r had found "all sorts of old old gold coins, etc...". My friend was awestruck! Thinking: "someone must've come here after I left, and found gold coins!". So as the two of them talked, the worker let out an interesting clue:
He mentioned an "owl" thiny. So my friend busted up laughing saying: "oh, that was me. And no, there it wasn't gold. And no, there wasn't gold coins, just a few IH's and a barber from the 1800s, etc..." But the worker would not be dissuaded! He was convinced there must've been some other md'r there, who found these goodies.
How did he know?? Because he "heard it first hand" from his buddies. Around the water cooler that morning . And they "saw it first hand"
Do you see how quickly the telephone game evolves ? And that was a single night!! Go figure if you add 70 yrs. Doh!
