I haven’t told this story in a while, and I think it needs to be told, forgive me if this turns out to be long, but it will be a good read.
When i was 12 years old, we had gone to my grandmother’s church, I had been there before, but this was for a special evening mass which had started at 4 pm. I was bored all the way through mass, and finally when it ended, we got to have a sort of after party. My parents were sitting at some tables, eating a meal of bread and other basic foods. I decided to venture away and boy am i glad i did. I went outside and i had notices this while coming in, the church had a sort of opening... one which was covered with some leafy overgrowth, perhaps ivy. This was BARELY noticeable, and i just had to investigate! The sun was just beginning to set, it had been about 5:30, and the mass was until 5pm, so I had a good 30 minutes to explore. So i go up to the opening, and see 4 small screws on the corners.. They looked a bit rusty, but i decided to try and open it, i don't have any clue why, but i just HAD to see what was inside. I couldn’t get them with my fingers, so i search my pockets, i had a couple pennies, a dime and a nickel.. i decided the dime would work best since it was smallest. I took it out, and started working the first screw, i chose the least rusty to see if it was possible. Well it took a bit of patience but after a minute or so it came out, it was only a 1 inch screw or so. I then took out all the other 3 screws, one which was extremely rusty and started to strip out. i sweated nervously, what if my parents or other church members saw me out here, perhaps destroying the church property? i started to get anxious, and i took started franticly twisting the dime with all my prepubescent might. I finally got the screw out after perhaps 4 minutes of fiddling with the darn thing! I open the 1/2 inch steel panel to reveal a small box. This box had a rusty lock on it, and it also said "parish contributions 1897" written on the iron box with some thick leaded pencil. Instantly my heart rate increased, my mind was set to open this box, but how? I took it out, it was about 6 inches wide, and tall, and the depth was about 4 inches. i took it out and rattled it, and o my word. I heard the loudest and most satisfying rattling possible. i was thinking of all the treasures that were probably stuffed inside this small box! At the time though, i didnt know WHAT treasures to look for. I was not a huge coin collector until after this inspiring event. I had thought of perhaps dollar coins at best, even clad ones i would’ve been happy with!
I tried to not dream of the treasures too much, as I hadn’t even opened it yet! Now for the interesting part, I looked into this dusty crawl space of sorts, and there was more then the box, there was a piece of paper in the back, covered with a thick layer of dust that had gathered for who knows, 100 or so years! I wiped it off, and carefully unfolded what luckily had been the map! The map to what though? The key? Another treasure? Well instantly I had recognized some features of the map, and even the classic “X” marks the spot. I see a black “x” on the top left corner of the map, next to a small box with a cross in it… then I realized what this was, this was a map leading straight into the cemetery behind the church! The last place I wanted to venture into, was where some treasure had been. I look back at the box, and I check out the lock, I tug on it and make sure it is not just simply unlocked… it is not, it was firmly attached, but still able to be opened by the proper key. I had a choice to make at this moment, to venture into the perhaps “haunted” cemetery or give up on the whole venture and return to my parents. Well I’m sure you can guess which of the two I picked; I HAD to go see what I could find! Perhaps there was treasure worth finding in the box. I still to this day do not know why they decided to hid this treasure, and why they made it a treasure hunt, perhaps there is fate in life, and that some things are meant to be.
I take a look at the old map, the paper felt dry and hearty in my hands, the only humidity was the sweat gathering into my palm, and then being absorbed by the crisp parchment. I take a look around me, to the right I see the forest next to the church, and to my left, a small dirt road which we entered and a large tree. I look at the map to find where I am, I seen the church on the map, a small box shape with a large cursive “C” in the middle. It seemed like I had been on the west side of the church, according to the drawn compass in the upper right hand corner. What was weird was that the compass didn’t have North facing upwards, but to the left, placing west downward. I needed to head North-East to reach my “X”. I started to walk in what I figured the right direction, and I had to cross the road, but at that time of day it wasn’t ever busy with traffic so I crossed easily. I was praying that no one would look out the few windows of the church and see me venturing into the death grounds at what seemed to me night time. The sun was getting lower, and the sky had turned that orange pink color and I could feel the temperature dropping ever so slightly. I am getting closer to the cemetery gate, which was thankfully open. The steel rods with spikes at the top of the gate greeted me with an awful black iron smile. I entered, and then I decided I needed to see where the X was. I look around a see plenty of old headstones, many of which were barely readable, I looked at one and remembered the name “Blackbeard” I thought it was horrifying at the moment, because I had heard stories of the pirate Blackbeard, and I actually thought it was HIS grave! Unbelievable the things you think as a kid. I tried to keep my cool, even though I had felt like turning around and running away and given up on my little adventure. I look at the map again, and I see my hands shaking, and hear the map crunching ever so slightly. I look up and see a large stone, and at the top a ledge of some sort and then a statue of some saint, I believe St. John. I look down at the map and see nothing there, but decide to walk towards it. I had reached the statue in no time, and I had now been somewhere towards the front-middle of the cemetery. I look at the map once again and the box with the cross in It is to the north and kind of near the north edge of the gate I suppose. Then I see it; the cross. It has to be the same as in the map, I see a wooden and brass cross probably 40 feet away in the distance. It was getting quite dark by now, and I could see it somewhat, but not completely. I actually jog to it now, warming myself up a bit from the dropping temp. I reach the cross, like I had seen in the map, there was a large box under it, large length and width wise, but not deep, it only was 2 inches off the ground, it was a “stand” for the cross I had thought. Well on the map the “x” was what seemed to be RIGHT beside the cross. I take a look and see nothing out of the ordinary by the box. I was heartbroken; I had overcome all this fear and found nothing!
Well I couldn’t just give up, I had to find what was this “x” on the map, even at 12 years old I knew that no one would go through the trouble of making a map for nothing! I took a look and the “x” was on the north side of the box, so I take a look, and I assume that the x would be in a certain spot, I remember about 1 foot away from the box. I grab a nearby fallen stick from the ground and start to poke and kind of dig through the ground a bit. It wasn’t easy work, but after a minute or so I had a hole going, and this Ohio soil is pretty lightweight stuff, so I got through it quite easy, and it was still wet for some reason, perhaps it had rained a day or so before this. I Got about 4 inches down and thought once again about abandoning ship, but then I hit something… It sounded hollow, almost like a metal ting sound. I look and see some brown object, as I dig around it with the stick I reveal an oval shaped metal container, somewhat like a jewelry box. I take a look, and thank god, no lock! I open it up, and it is somehow stuffed with dirt, I dig around and I find a set of keys, not one, but about 10-15 keys! I scoop it up quick, not even bothering to see if anything else was in the box, I just knew I needed those keys, that one had to work!
I quickly replace the dirt, and run back out of the cemetery, I imagined a skeleton chasing me and I had run and run and run, it seemed to take forever. I take a look at my watch, and it says 5:50. Time was really winding down. I eventually reached the gate and crossed the road; I could feel my light up sketchers hitting the gravel with utmost speed. I was going to be rich! I go to the plate, and I see it just as I had left it. I take the keys out of my pocket and fiddle with them to get one free. They were kind of stuck together in a way. I took the smallest one, since the lock hole was relatively small and tried it out, I slide the key into the hole and jiggled it, but to no avail. Onto the next key, a small gold colored key that had a “KYS” engraved onto it, I had put it in, and it didn’t fit into the hole, a problem I didn’t really think that would occur… I looked at the keys left, only two more that even seemed to be close to the size of the whole. I take the smaller of the two I suspect that could work, and I put it in, it fit! I twisted the key and to my amazement, “click” sounded the lock. I gently took the lock off, and tried to open the lid of the box, it seemed rusted shut. I didn’t want to tug too hard on it and spill my treasure!
I take the box and put it into my lap, and I pry the lid open, tactfully, and it opens, I reveal what seemed to me a PIRATES treasure! A huge assortment of coins, and some dollar bills! The coins included what I remember to be a TON of quarters, some had a “Greek head” on them, what I’m sure is a barber now, and also I do remember the seated liberties in there as well! A few barber halves, a bunch of barber dimes, and some old Indian head pennies! Only one dollar coin was in there, and I thought it had to be worth at least $1000, but it was just a worn out Morgan dollar. Still an awesome find to me, and I couldn’t believe that someone had stuffed them down here.
Now for the sad part of the story. I had no way to really contain all these coins without being noticed. I knew they weren’t mine, and If I had got caught with these, I figured I would go to “jail” So I decided to keep a few, and hide the box for another time. I of coarse took the dollar coin and some of the 50 cent pieces and a couple quarters, the rest to the birds I thought. I grabbed them up and placed a few in each pocket. I placed the box back, and the map as well. I placed metal door back on and put the top right corner screw back in and the bottom left screw back in as well. I walked inside, and my parents had asked where I had been, I said exploring outside and they figured I was doing no harm. Once we got home I put the coins into my special desk drawer. One day at school I decided to show my friends what I found, but I never told anyone HOW I found them, one kid wanted to trade me a charizard Pokémon card for my dollar coin, I told him I wanted the dollar coin, but he couple have a half and a quarter instead, he took it and I had the best Pokémon card out of the whole school! Too bad I didn’t keep those coins, they are probably more significant than the pokemon card nowadays. The other dollar coin, I had left somewhere, and lost it, as well as the other quarter. Bu that is not the worst part, I have never gone back to that church, and one day my grandmother told me that it had been burned up ina recent fire, and then they decided to tear it down. What a shame I will never get to see any of those coins again, perhaps hundreds in silver gone with a fire. That was my oddest experience with coins, and one that most kids probably don’t get to have, and probably why most teens my age don’t like to coin collect. Thanks for reading!
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