Greg Pavlov:

That is a neat story. My mothers's father
had a good chunk of money, back in Europe,
and what with the inevitable WWII coming on
he decided to put it into something portable
and easy to trade for food, etc if the going
got rough: crystal. The going did get rough.
I don't know what happened to the crystal,
but I know that it didn't do much good.

It was a neat experience. He had a tool shed about 100 yards in the woods from
the house. (BTW, he gave the land surrounding the house to GMU, but that's
another story.) All four of his children and Daisy their mother gathered at
mid-night. Aided by the light of two keresene lamps, we began to dig at the
spot the map indicated the treasure was burried. Each person took a shovel
full. We found the pipe about two feet down. Joanne's nephews and nieces
really enjoyed the spookiness of it.

But the story doesn't end there. Two of Joanne's brothers flew out to Oregon
and packed up all of "Daddy's" belongings, including window boxes full of dirt,
and all the potted plants in the house. The day after the "treasure dig", one
of Jo's brothers decided that it would be just like daddy to hide things in the
potted plants/window boxes. Sure enough, he found a Krugerrand and the hunt
was on. By the end of the dig, there were 30 to 35 gold coins found. Joanne
and her family are the most ethical folks I've ever known, and all the gold
coins were turned over to the executor and eventually to GMU.

John left his family very little - he thought that everyone should make their
fortunes by themselfs. But we had a helluva good time digging. If only Boris
Karloff and Lon Chaney were there.......
Dave

http://hometown.aol.com/davplac/myhomepage/index.html