Whos burying?

[Lucky Eddie]

Whos burying Caches now?

The great depression was something my grandfather (Lucky Eddie) lived thru.

He was rather lucky - he had a job as a steam train driver carting wheat and coal etc - all of which was essential for the war efforts of WW1 & 2. So while his other 6 brothers (The Harper Street Howlers gang) all had to do time in the services - Lucky Eddie never had to - he couldn't be released form his important govt job driving the steam trains.

It also meant Lucky Eddie - had, a full time basic wage of about 5 pounds a week right thru the great depression, and Lucky Eddie had but one child (my mother "Cactus Kate" - she was a prickly little b!tch according to my Uncle - Lucky Eddies brother Ernie).

So - Lucky Edie saved a lot of his pennies (those he didn't lose gamblin on the GG's).

A local builder was down on his luck with the depression - he;d bought a half acre block and built a new double brick & tile 2 bedroom home on it. He was way behind in his rates to the local shire (40 pounds or 8 weeks wages a lot on those days).

Lucky Eddie My Grandfather offered this builder 50 pounds for the 1 year old new home and half acre parcel of land land, The deal was he paid the shire 40 pounds in back rates and gave the fella 10 pounds to go up bush with his brother and start a farm.

So Lucky Eddie, owned his own home - with no mortgage all his life - and had a steady wage with money left over each week to gamble on the GG's and buy shares etc.

Lots of people lost money in the banks when they closed, not Eddi e- he kept his in trunks etc in his sleepout (Enclosed verandah / breezeway).

Eddie was a "cache" type of guy - definitely not a Bank kind of guy!

So

Here we are today - Banks are going broke across America every week - people losing their $ - and Homes being foreclosed on.

Do we distrust banks again?

Are we cache burying again?

If not - why not?

I know when Lucky Eddie died, his wife (my nana) couldn't WAIT to get rid of Lucky Eddies "stuff".... being the only grandson a LOTof it went to me. All manner of hand tools (antique bye that time). And old coins his bros brought back from ww1 when they served in Egypt, you name it - there were litle caches everywhere - tins with this n that.

And cardboard shoe boxes, up on top of the wardrobe stuffed full of shares certificates.

Yes Eddie had a policy for shares - "buy em & never sell em!".

He had Phillip Morris shares when they were blue chip - over 10 pounds each, but even after the link between smoking and cancer was discovered and tobacco co's were going down - he couldn't be convinced to sell them. he rationalised that maybethey'd go back up one day - maybe the co would diversify into something else and so on and so forth.

He bought boxes of penny shares!

His rationale?

If they go up - it has to be to tuppence - thus a 100% profit!

Any time a co offered a takeover - he'd vote for it and get 2 for 1 share offers - he never took dividends, always bonus shares.

So bit bye bit he increased his share portfolio.

And he loved to go to share holders meetings in the city and rub shoulders with the wealthy elite - Lucky Eddie the steam train driver.

Eddie died in Sept 1987.....and his wife and daughter (my mother) - the FIRST thing they did was take every share certificate to a stock broker and sold the whole lot!

I think all the long term and institutional stock holders saw Lucky Eddies shares hit the market all in one go, and figured "Heck - he must KNOW something" coz Lucky Eddies shares NEVER came onthe Market EVER!

Thus started the Oct 87 stock market crash!

People we knew well (neighbors up the road) bought the property and did it up after a lifetimes neglect by Lucky Eddie.

They were forever ringing us up after wards "Ohh - we were cleaning out the sleep out and found:-

-Tins with coins or semi precious gem stones in it
- a small purse with cash tightly rolledd up inside it - behind the wardrobe, under the wadrobe - on top of a kitchen cabinet (Nan was the cash cacher - she went senile long before we found out where any of her stashes were).

They were alwasy not THAT valuable - a hundred or 2oo of cash here and there, - we ended up just saying to them - look - you own the property now - anything you find is yours to keep, no need to ring us all the time - we don't need it - you keep it.

The property's so big (half acre block) that they decided to develope it and build a new houseout the back to lease out for income.

They got a bobcat and dump truck in to clean out the back yard.

Lucky Eddie was a gem stone collector all his life, he had hisself a pickup truck - he NEVER brought home a nice sample piece of this or that gemstone, ohh no, not Lucky Eddie - he had a half acre block at home and me the grandson to do the heavy lifting - he ALWAYS brought home a pickup truck load of whatever semi precious gem field he had found!

Theres was rock monds over the whole back yard - mountain goats could have lived happily there up on all the rubble mounds.

Anyway the Bob Cat and truck made short work of it and about half a million worth of semi precious gem stones of every type imaginable went into a building landfill site somewhere - just to get it out the way!

Lucky Eddies Lifetimes collection worth!

Those owners, last time I saw then - still finding "caches" - some of the jars had notes in them....(some were still in pounds)...Mu winnings off the melbourne cup in 1920 when Phar lap won at 3 to one odds! type of thing (to remind him of how he'd won it).

I think he hid a LOT of his chaches, because his wife (my nana) didn't know how much of his wage he was betting each week on the nags, and when he occasionally won - he won BIG, and wouldn't have been easily able to explain where the CASH suddenly appeared from in the depression - so rather than have to explain he just buried it for a rainy day in the back yard!

I think lots of people had their own reason for caching but it WAS often from lessons learned in the great depression about trusting in banks.

Maybe we ought to be burying a bit more of pour wealth right now then!

What will future generations have to hunt for if we aren't burying treasure NOW?

Cheers

 

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[BigDan]

I love your style of writing!

Inspired, please forgive this poorly learned man's attempt at his own tale.

I cannot say that my father might come from money. He was the youngest of nine children, born to a German farmer in Northwest Iowa, and his English wife. My Grandfather Heiko was one of seven sons himself. He was born in 1869, so that you might get an idea of his age when in the late 1800's he, along with his German born Father and all his brothers, were making their way from New York State to Washington State for certainly some grand plan of prosperous design.

But in Burlington, Iowa, somehow Heiko and a brother met two English sisters and each determined to marry one of the two ladies. Only if one brother agreed to stay in Iowa, was the bargain offered by the young girls parents. So Heiko agreed to stay, in Iowa, and after becoming wed, promptly took his bride just about as far from Burlington as he could and still be in the state!

I doubt Heiko and Besse had much to make a cache, not with nine kids.

Meanwhile, my mother's parents, my Grandmother was a patient in a hospital the last ten or so years of her life, my Grandfather took to month long drinking binges. My mother and her three sisters spent time in an orphanage before being raised by an aunt who held no guilt that she saw them fed and schooled but little else. No cache there, I'm afraid. But perhaps some common whiskey bottles?

Ah! But Besse's brothers! In the 1920's she had two brothers who lived on their own farm and were known to spend much time in Chicago. They had two fine cars, always had money, and did not have any known occupation. Even their farmland was rented out. They took to allowing a young Canadian lady to live with them. Nothing is known of her, not even her name. But. There came a day when the bodies of my two Great-Uncles were found inside their house...smelly and decayed. Everything was gone, including the Canadian fem-fatale who it seems must have left with everything. But HOW did she manage to take both cars? The Sheriff was less than interested as my Uncles were men of low respect. He determined they died from eating poison oysters.

Now, if I had a clue where their farm was..I might find a cache there, and I suppose I might bury it again just to maintain the family tradition.

 

[Cachefinder]

Thanks for the story Lucky!


and Big Dan -- that sounds like it would be a great movie
(have u started writting the script?)

 

[BigDan]

No, Cachefinder...

...no script for this one. The only other thing I know about them is what my Dad told me. They never dressed like farmers...always had on suits. And that they had a reputation as being tough guys.

I am however writing a book about a more interesting relative. I'll let you know when it is done.

 

[lastleg]

Spooky, don't be so down, lad. One day you'll be sitting in your easy chair
after fish & chips and get a collect call from your long lost bud in unalaska
with a yarn that'll jolt you out of you sad reverie. "Bloke, get your travelall
outa hock and burn some grooves in the pavement up here. I struck it rich."
Or it might be your third ex-wife yelling "Look cookie, that crazy crony o'
yours keeps calling me blabbering about some gold claim you bought in '92,
would you please get him off my back?"
Don't give up, your ship could be dropping anchor anytime now.

 

[lastleg]

Hey Spooky:

There have been some, not many, authentic leads posted on the forum in
recent days. You'll need to expand your horizons a tad and maybe go where
others fear to go.

 

[Connecticut Sam]

Many great stories.