Shorty’s Treasure
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One day during the summer when I was six, I received a letter in the mail. It was from a man named “Shorty” who was incarcerated in the county prison. He informed me that he needed help; if I would find the treasure that he had hidden on our 285 acres of Adirondack forest land and hold it until he was released, I could keep half of it. Being six, with an active imagination and having read Treasure Island, I was excited out of my mind.
One day during the summer when I was six, I received a letter in the mail. It was from a man named “Shorty” who was incarcerated in the county prison. He informed me that he needed help; if I would find the treasure that he had hidden on our 285 acres of Adirondack forest land and hold it until he was released, I could keep half of it. Being six, with an active imagination and having read Treasure Island, I was excited out of my mind.
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The next day another letter arrived with a detailed map of our land and with an “x” marked “Shorty’s Island” on it. My father and I set out to find the spot and the treasure. After several hours of following trails and the map, we came to a small “island” in the middle of a spruce-marsh. We scoured the island and finally under a pile of leaves and branches I found an antique metal cigar box! I remember to this day opening the box and seeing the pile of old coins that looked like nothing I had ever seen before. My father and I took them home and I was busy the rest of the day examining, sorting, and counting the coins.
The next day another letter arrived with a detailed map of our land and with an “x” marked “Shorty’s Island” on it. My father and I set out to find the spot and the treasure. After several hours of following trails and the map, we came to a small “island” in the middle of a spruce-marsh. We scoured the island and finally under a pile of leaves and branches I found an antique metal cigar box! I remember to this day opening the box and seeing the pile of old coins that looked like nothing I had ever seen before. My father and I took them home and I was busy the rest of the day examining, sorting, and counting the coins.
Several days later I received my last letter from Shorty. It said that he wasn’t going to be around much longer so I might as well keep all of the coins. It turned out that “Shorty” would be around for seven more years, but when my grandfather did pass away, the memory of Shorty’s treasure remained one of my fondest.
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The coins had been collected by my great-grandfather when he was a trolley car driver in Rochester. Whenever he found a coin that was unusual, he would replace it with his own money, and soon he had quite a collection. My grandfather, who was a boy at heart, invented the entire story, knowing the effect it would have on an impressionable six year old.
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“Shorty’s Treasure” did have a lasting effect on me; it sparked a hobby that has lasted since that day when I found that shiny cigar box under the branches. Even if those coins were worth thousands of dollars, I don’t believe I would ever sell them, because when I see them today I remember “Shorty” and what a wonderful, kind-hearted man he was.
......~ One of my son's college applications asked for an essay about "a meaningful event" in his life, and that was what he wrote. (In case you're wondering, he was accepted). This week would be Shorty's 106th birthday.
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The most valuable coin in Shorty's Treasure was this 1922 Grant half dollar, valued at about $25 in 1983. For the next ten years or so, my son added to his collection with purchases of fairly low-priced old foreign and domestic coins. Below, father and son revisit "Shorty's Island" nearly twenty-five years later.
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