Nice. That’s one of my fantasies now that I’m working on our house…
We pulled paneling down in the daughters room this last weekend, and someone had spray painted a peace sign, a crude representation of a cross, and the words “Peace and Love from The Great One”.
I’m really wondering what else we’re gonna find.
I’m hoping cash.
My aunt and uncle used to keep lots of cash in their house. My uncle, who later lost his memory, hid it all over the house. After they died and the house was sold, workmen who were demolishing it found thousands of dollars in the walls.
I’ve been following this thread since the beginning. I love it!
This made me remember this bit on Happy Rhodes’ Wikipedia page, in a section about why she paints monsters even though her music is gentle and sensitive:
She gave me the address of the house and I had thought briefly of writing and asking the owners if they’d ever uncovered the monster paintings or, if they did in the future to take photos because they WOULD be important to future music historians, but I chickened out. They’d probably just think I was crazy. A more likely goal is trying to track down the guy with the motorcycle saddlebag. He already knows she’s nutso for monsters. I desperately want to own that saddlebag. I already own the original painting from her 2nd album. I bought it on ebay.
A few years back I had a friend who owned a building in downtown Ypsilanti Michigan. He had a business downstairs and was renovating the upstairs to live in. He showed me a stretch of smooth plaster where workmen had signed their names in black paint over a hundred years earlier (someone even drew a penis, as I recall). Pretty cool.
What was even cooler was that I recognized one of the names-- Winsor McCay.
Saturday we pulled down more panelling. Written under one piece, in faded red marker, was the command “Finish this room!”.
Under the panel to the right of that was someones doodle… bubble letters saying “home”.
It made my wife a little sad.
How sad. i was so looking forward to seeing a conclusion to this caper.
…And yes, I am a longtime reader, first time poster.
Welcome to the SDMB, OldGoat.
But we ain’t beat yet!
While we’re sitting around waiting for Donald Ivens to show up, I thought I’d share something I did at work which was inspired by this thread.
The mess deck at the station where I work was carpeted. The carpet was very worn and needed replacing. We decided to replace it with a nice ceramic tile and got started a few weeks ago.
As we were ripping up the old carpet, we discovered all the notes and comments written on the plywood sub floor, left by the crew that laid the carpet. Things like "Call me when you find this - I might be single by then! - signed, [name]. As I read all the comments, I thought of this thread.
When it came time to lay the new tile, we had decided to get a little fancy a lay in a nice seven foot compass rose made of different colored tile. It actually points to North. So I’m thinking, what great place to leave something for people to find decades later. So, under the compass rose, I placed a treasure map.
It’s not really a map, per se; it’s actually a maneuvering board. Basically, it’s a large piece of paper that kind of looks like a RADAR scope. I drew the compass rose in the center of the paper, and an arrow pointing north-west. I drew three circles, representing trees, and in the center of those trees I drew a big “X”. North-west points directly at the park outside the station, and the three tree are visible through a window when you stand directly on the compass rose and face NW.
Now I just need to figure out what I’m going to bury in the park.
I just came across this thread and am riveted! I’m just glad I didn’t pick up on it January 11th, I’d have pulled my hair out by now.
I’m such a stalker.
Source: http://www.trninc.com/pdfs/04Catalog.pdf (PDF)
How about your wallet. 
That’s amazing…**Hal ** should send them a photo of the wall and their names. I bet they’d be amazed to get it.
Yeah, but then they would know where their stalker lives.
Believe me, that thought has crossed my mind. Or maybe filmyak will let me bury Donald Ivens’ wallet.
I haven’t decided whether I’ll bury the ‘prize’ in the park, or go into full ‘Da Vinci Code’ mode and bury another clue leading elsewhere. I have a few years to decide.
Years ago I took down a wall to turn two small rooms into one large room and found within the wall $180 in brand-new, crisp $10 bills that were dated 1953!
CNN article about a lost class ring found 20 years later
It’s not a wallet, but this is really cool. An ex-CIA officer went cave diving off Mauritus, and lost her class ring. 20 years later, some guy from Germany found the ring in the cave and returned it. 
Scruloose, that is a supremely cool plan. I’d love to be whoever finds your map later! Of course… it might be so far in the future that the park might have disappeared - mosiacs seem to last a long time. But that’d still be really cool.
Scruloose how about burying a copy of this thread with whatever else you decide?
Any reply from the Social Security Administration’s letter forwarding service?
OK, I’ve been bad. Totally lazy, haven’t followed up on this in past couple of weeks. I think some of the wind went out of my sails, my apologies. (Having a newborn at home isn’t making it any easier, either…)
So. Let me get back on it, follow up like I said I would.
Tick, tock…
I had a lost class ring returned to me about 5 years after I lost it. It had dropped behind a locker in the mens locker room at my high school. Another student had his go to the same location, and when he went looking for his, found mine. I was easy to find, as I was still working in the supermarket where he also worked (I worked there through college).