Eyeballing as a kid.....no detector needed!
AUandAG
Posts: 24,779 ✭✭✭✭✭
Okay, here's my story. Perhaps you'd share one of yours with us?
A little background first. My family is from Carson City, but I was born in the SF bay area when Dad was
building troop ships at the SF shipyards during WWII. So, spent many years there before moving to
Carson as a teen.
No pics, just a read about an 8 year old kid.
My memories of Virgina City:
1954 was my first recollection of Virginia City, Nevada.
The summer of my 8th birthday with a visit to Grandma and Grandpa in Carson. We were living in Redwood City, California at the time and my Mother and Father would send take us up to Carson to visit my Grandparents. Typical, as I recall the neighbor boys in Redwood went off each summer as well. It was at the end of the vacation to CC that we got to go to VC with parents and grandparents.
At first it was always traumatic to be taken away from the summer fun we had as young boys in the neighborhood. It interrupted the games young lads play such as kick the can after dark. Biking to Henly’s Rock or downtown to see the stores. Baseball pickups and49er football practice at the nearby 49er practice field. It was not fun to leave such fun!
But once there and settled in, it was easy to find new stuff to do and places to explore. Always plenty to do! There was the Nevada State Museum and the mine underneath that would take hours each and every day to explore and play in the tunnels and adits. I actually learned a lot about mining from that Museum display! I guess that is what a Museum is supposed to do: teach!
Then there were the endless days on the Carson River. Oh, what fun and excitement. The 22 rifle was always a pleasure to fire and I actually could keep up with my older brother, John, in hitting the targets! I guess a keen eye helped and he only had one eye that focused! Four years younger and BETTER at hitting the targets whether they were floating chunks of wood in the river or a rock on the other side. Made no difference as I could hit either almost every time! Nice to beat your older brother in anything!
We always camped near Mexican dam. A dam on the Carson that was used to store water and during low water flow it was released to run the mills and such in the olden days. But, for us it was a huge swimming hole! A nice shower source in evening and that was always fun as we got to do that with the adults. But, I’m not sure I liked the soap part. Getting the sand and dirt off was great. I mean swimming was not everything and playing in the river bank and in the sand bars was as fun as anything a kid could do.
Now keep in mind I am about 8 and am easily pleased. Grandma Ella and Grandpa Ed would always bring crawdad traps that we boys had to tend. Dang, those are good eat’n crttiers! In a week we could get 40 pounds of them and on the weekend (we’d spend a month camping on the river) there would be other adults that showed up for the feast and the drinks! Grandma was with us boys all day and Grandpa came out every night after work and on weekends. Us boys sure got our share of crawdads and couldn’t wait for the weekends! We stored them in a 50 gallon drum of river water that was half buried in the river. We would empty the traps every morning and night. Baiting them with chicken livers and such! Those little critters had holes or tunnels that were under the water level that went back under the banks. But, they could not resist those chicken parts!
At the end of the summer Mom and Dad would come up and stay a week or so and then all would go back home to Redwood City to finish out the summer.
When they did arrive, we always new it was time for more fun and new adventures. Virginia City was a big part of that. That first summer, of my recollection, we went to VC on a Sunday after Mass. Probably arrived about noon or so. Always went to the same place to begin the day: The Bucket of Blood Saloon. There Mom and Dad introduced me to the barkeep Mr. Mike Demis. It was there that we also me the piano player Maggie. I don’t recall if I ever new Maggie’s last name but will never forget her.
First off we got to sit at the long bar and were treated to bar food nibbles just like the big folks. Got to order a Roy Rogers, or some such drink, with red coloring and a cherry. Peanuts, popcorn, and pretzels and all we could consume! Dang that was fun! Mr. Demis was a wonderful happy man and as I recall tall and rotund! He wore a black vest over a white long sleeve shirt with cufflinks made of gold $5 pieces. Dapper was the term of the day and it applied to Mr. Demis!
Now there’s Maggie. Ah she made those keys on that out of tune piano sing like a lark! Honky-tonk at its best! I got to sit on the piano stool next to her while she played and got to watch the patrons put dollar after dollar in her tip glass on top of the piano. Dang, that sticks out so vividly in my mind. And they were all silver dollars to boot!
Maggie played by ear said Grandma. She never had a lesson in her life. But, if you could hum it, she could play it! When she was at the piano the place jumped, people just got up and danced! Drinks flowed and laughter was non stop! It was hard to hear any conversation including the one you were trying to have! So, it was best to just listen and enjoy.
They were sing-along songs that Maggie played. Like “the old oaken bucket” and “Camptown ladies sing this song”. But, there were Patriotic songs and marches as well. Those ivories would tickle anyone to death with pleasure! Much fun and we were included, at least tolerated for a little while. After hours at the Bucket of Blood, Mom and Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa, would begin to make the rounds to all the bars. The Silver Queen Saloon was always next and was just across the street. It was there that we saw the poker table and the “dead man’s hand” on display. Something about two pair: aces and eights, and a pistol and a killing. The hand was laid out on the table for all to see. Behind the table on the wall was the revolver that was used to do the kill’n. Not the fancy Colt you see in the movies, just a little pea shooter but deadly at that.
Now, by the time we’d been at the Silver Queen for a while Mom and Dad would just begin to ignore us kids. Seems the drinks and now the food was of primary concern and we two boys were left to ourselves.
What could we do to entertain ourselves without getting the belt? Well, one thing was scrimmaging for coins. Yep, we were both lean kids, 8 and 12, and could wiggle ourselves behind just about anything anywhere. Well, in those days the slot machines were the old one arm bandits. Nothing electrical. A patron would have to put a coin in a slot and pull the lever to play the machine. Some would sit like dummies with no expressions until they hit a nice payout and then they would come to life and laughter. Some, like my Mom, would have more fun playing the slots than should have been allowed. She could lose or win and it mattered not to her. It was just fun and a lot of it! Dad preferred the 21 table and never played the slots. Mom did both! When the slot money ran out she was hanging on Dad ‘till he fed her some money for the machines!
When people drink, and play slots, they lose money just because they lose their dexterity. Most of the coins just fall into their lap or onto the floor but a few of the coins fell between the slots and rolled back behind them. Some hit the floor and just rolled under the slot stands. All the slots were at a height that the patron could sit on a bar stool and comfortably play them. So, necessarily, they had to sit on a base or a stand to hold them. Well, there was a bit of a clearance behind the machines/stands so that us two boys could skinny and shinny and get behind on our sides (not enough room for laying on your belly, just too tight). This allowed us access to the undersides of the stands and all the loose coins that dropped there!
Oh what fun and easy profit! After 20 minutes of being undetected by anyone we both felt like we had hit the jackpot! I had a bit more than $4 for me. John, of course, had a lot more than me at about $10 or so! Now, trust me that’s a lot of loose change!
After cleaning out the slots at the Silver Queen we asked if we could wander around town. Mom and Dad and Grampa and Grandma being pretty soused, said that we could, but just don’t be long (whatever that meant I never learned!)
Wandering around town was a blast. The town literally smelled old. The dirt glistened and our imaginations ran wild with thoughts of gold and nuggets and lost treasures! So, with that on our minds we spotted what we thought would be worth investigating: the wooden boardwalks! Yes, they were made of just ordinary 10” or so planks and were about 6’ wide and were made to be off the ground about a foot or so. I suppose they were made that way to keep the mud off of folk’s shoes and such as there were no paved streets back in the day of the Comstock. When it rained or snowed and the snow melted it was just a mud hole and just getting from one local to another was a muddy mess. Horse and oxen crap mixed with the mud and slush and had to have been pure hell. The men and women of the Comstock had gumption just to live there!
Now that John and I figured out where to look we had to figure out how to get under the sidewalks to search. Well, back to the old Bucket of Blood Saloon as there was a piece of the sidewalk that was broken or sawed out next to the building. Seems that someone needed access to the electrical that ran under the planks and cut a hole and did a poor patch job that turned out to be our entry point. This was in the wide open and easily seen by any adult passing nearby. We had to wait and be crafty or be seen and told to get the heck out. Well, being the younger kid I sat near the hole and waited for John to say “NOW” before plunging down below to the underside of the boards. Seemed forever and then it happened ,and down I went with my brother pushing me saying: hurry, hurry, hurry!
It took a minute or so for the eyes to adjust to the low light and then they never really adjusted as every foot or so there was a bright stripe from the sunlight penetrating the earth below from the cracks above. Not easy to see. Once down we seemed to adjust to the size restrictions of the underside and went along side by side and inch by inch. I was on the street side and John on the building side. My heart pounded as I found my first coin, a quarter! John poked me in the side as he found a dime and a quarter! Ten minutes and ten feet later I found a gold coin marked 2 ½ dollars! John found one with $10 and another with 2 ½ dollars, too! Silver dimes, quarters and couple of halves and a few dollars too! Treasure was there for the taking in Virginia City back in the summer of 1954! All in all we had more than $30 face value. Would have continued on but the boardwalk ended at a cross street!
I was not a coin collector at that time and turned the coins over to Mom and Dad for just plain paper money! I’m sure they just spent it or took it to the bank. It was just found money in those days.
0 years later my brother and I were discussing the adventure under the boardwalks of Virginia City, when he told me he traded me his small coins for my gold ones. Essentially he admitted that he took advantage of me and cheated me out of my gold. He did not give Mom and Dad the gold. He kept it. Oh, he no longer has it as it was stolen somewhere along the way. Sad but true.
That was my Virginia City in the summer of 1954.
Bob
A little background first. My family is from Carson City, but I was born in the SF bay area when Dad was
building troop ships at the SF shipyards during WWII. So, spent many years there before moving to
Carson as a teen.
No pics, just a read about an 8 year old kid.
My memories of Virgina City:
1954 was my first recollection of Virginia City, Nevada.
The summer of my 8th birthday with a visit to Grandma and Grandpa in Carson. We were living in Redwood City, California at the time and my Mother and Father would send take us up to Carson to visit my Grandparents. Typical, as I recall the neighbor boys in Redwood went off each summer as well. It was at the end of the vacation to CC that we got to go to VC with parents and grandparents.
At first it was always traumatic to be taken away from the summer fun we had as young boys in the neighborhood. It interrupted the games young lads play such as kick the can after dark. Biking to Henly’s Rock or downtown to see the stores. Baseball pickups and49er football practice at the nearby 49er practice field. It was not fun to leave such fun!
But once there and settled in, it was easy to find new stuff to do and places to explore. Always plenty to do! There was the Nevada State Museum and the mine underneath that would take hours each and every day to explore and play in the tunnels and adits. I actually learned a lot about mining from that Museum display! I guess that is what a Museum is supposed to do: teach!
Then there were the endless days on the Carson River. Oh, what fun and excitement. The 22 rifle was always a pleasure to fire and I actually could keep up with my older brother, John, in hitting the targets! I guess a keen eye helped and he only had one eye that focused! Four years younger and BETTER at hitting the targets whether they were floating chunks of wood in the river or a rock on the other side. Made no difference as I could hit either almost every time! Nice to beat your older brother in anything!
We always camped near Mexican dam. A dam on the Carson that was used to store water and during low water flow it was released to run the mills and such in the olden days. But, for us it was a huge swimming hole! A nice shower source in evening and that was always fun as we got to do that with the adults. But, I’m not sure I liked the soap part. Getting the sand and dirt off was great. I mean swimming was not everything and playing in the river bank and in the sand bars was as fun as anything a kid could do.
Now keep in mind I am about 8 and am easily pleased. Grandma Ella and Grandpa Ed would always bring crawdad traps that we boys had to tend. Dang, those are good eat’n crttiers! In a week we could get 40 pounds of them and on the weekend (we’d spend a month camping on the river) there would be other adults that showed up for the feast and the drinks! Grandma was with us boys all day and Grandpa came out every night after work and on weekends. Us boys sure got our share of crawdads and couldn’t wait for the weekends! We stored them in a 50 gallon drum of river water that was half buried in the river. We would empty the traps every morning and night. Baiting them with chicken livers and such! Those little critters had holes or tunnels that were under the water level that went back under the banks. But, they could not resist those chicken parts!
At the end of the summer Mom and Dad would come up and stay a week or so and then all would go back home to Redwood City to finish out the summer.
When they did arrive, we always new it was time for more fun and new adventures. Virginia City was a big part of that. That first summer, of my recollection, we went to VC on a Sunday after Mass. Probably arrived about noon or so. Always went to the same place to begin the day: The Bucket of Blood Saloon. There Mom and Dad introduced me to the barkeep Mr. Mike Demis. It was there that we also me the piano player Maggie. I don’t recall if I ever new Maggie’s last name but will never forget her.
First off we got to sit at the long bar and were treated to bar food nibbles just like the big folks. Got to order a Roy Rogers, or some such drink, with red coloring and a cherry. Peanuts, popcorn, and pretzels and all we could consume! Dang that was fun! Mr. Demis was a wonderful happy man and as I recall tall and rotund! He wore a black vest over a white long sleeve shirt with cufflinks made of gold $5 pieces. Dapper was the term of the day and it applied to Mr. Demis!
Now there’s Maggie. Ah she made those keys on that out of tune piano sing like a lark! Honky-tonk at its best! I got to sit on the piano stool next to her while she played and got to watch the patrons put dollar after dollar in her tip glass on top of the piano. Dang, that sticks out so vividly in my mind. And they were all silver dollars to boot!
Maggie played by ear said Grandma. She never had a lesson in her life. But, if you could hum it, she could play it! When she was at the piano the place jumped, people just got up and danced! Drinks flowed and laughter was non stop! It was hard to hear any conversation including the one you were trying to have! So, it was best to just listen and enjoy.
They were sing-along songs that Maggie played. Like “the old oaken bucket” and “Camptown ladies sing this song”. But, there were Patriotic songs and marches as well. Those ivories would tickle anyone to death with pleasure! Much fun and we were included, at least tolerated for a little while. After hours at the Bucket of Blood, Mom and Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa, would begin to make the rounds to all the bars. The Silver Queen Saloon was always next and was just across the street. It was there that we saw the poker table and the “dead man’s hand” on display. Something about two pair: aces and eights, and a pistol and a killing. The hand was laid out on the table for all to see. Behind the table on the wall was the revolver that was used to do the kill’n. Not the fancy Colt you see in the movies, just a little pea shooter but deadly at that.
Now, by the time we’d been at the Silver Queen for a while Mom and Dad would just begin to ignore us kids. Seems the drinks and now the food was of primary concern and we two boys were left to ourselves.
What could we do to entertain ourselves without getting the belt? Well, one thing was scrimmaging for coins. Yep, we were both lean kids, 8 and 12, and could wiggle ourselves behind just about anything anywhere. Well, in those days the slot machines were the old one arm bandits. Nothing electrical. A patron would have to put a coin in a slot and pull the lever to play the machine. Some would sit like dummies with no expressions until they hit a nice payout and then they would come to life and laughter. Some, like my Mom, would have more fun playing the slots than should have been allowed. She could lose or win and it mattered not to her. It was just fun and a lot of it! Dad preferred the 21 table and never played the slots. Mom did both! When the slot money ran out she was hanging on Dad ‘till he fed her some money for the machines!
When people drink, and play slots, they lose money just because they lose their dexterity. Most of the coins just fall into their lap or onto the floor but a few of the coins fell between the slots and rolled back behind them. Some hit the floor and just rolled under the slot stands. All the slots were at a height that the patron could sit on a bar stool and comfortably play them. So, necessarily, they had to sit on a base or a stand to hold them. Well, there was a bit of a clearance behind the machines/stands so that us two boys could skinny and shinny and get behind on our sides (not enough room for laying on your belly, just too tight). This allowed us access to the undersides of the stands and all the loose coins that dropped there!
Oh what fun and easy profit! After 20 minutes of being undetected by anyone we both felt like we had hit the jackpot! I had a bit more than $4 for me. John, of course, had a lot more than me at about $10 or so! Now, trust me that’s a lot of loose change!
After cleaning out the slots at the Silver Queen we asked if we could wander around town. Mom and Dad and Grampa and Grandma being pretty soused, said that we could, but just don’t be long (whatever that meant I never learned!)
Wandering around town was a blast. The town literally smelled old. The dirt glistened and our imaginations ran wild with thoughts of gold and nuggets and lost treasures! So, with that on our minds we spotted what we thought would be worth investigating: the wooden boardwalks! Yes, they were made of just ordinary 10” or so planks and were about 6’ wide and were made to be off the ground about a foot or so. I suppose they were made that way to keep the mud off of folk’s shoes and such as there were no paved streets back in the day of the Comstock. When it rained or snowed and the snow melted it was just a mud hole and just getting from one local to another was a muddy mess. Horse and oxen crap mixed with the mud and slush and had to have been pure hell. The men and women of the Comstock had gumption just to live there!
Now that John and I figured out where to look we had to figure out how to get under the sidewalks to search. Well, back to the old Bucket of Blood Saloon as there was a piece of the sidewalk that was broken or sawed out next to the building. Seems that someone needed access to the electrical that ran under the planks and cut a hole and did a poor patch job that turned out to be our entry point. This was in the wide open and easily seen by any adult passing nearby. We had to wait and be crafty or be seen and told to get the heck out. Well, being the younger kid I sat near the hole and waited for John to say “NOW” before plunging down below to the underside of the boards. Seemed forever and then it happened ,and down I went with my brother pushing me saying: hurry, hurry, hurry!
It took a minute or so for the eyes to adjust to the low light and then they never really adjusted as every foot or so there was a bright stripe from the sunlight penetrating the earth below from the cracks above. Not easy to see. Once down we seemed to adjust to the size restrictions of the underside and went along side by side and inch by inch. I was on the street side and John on the building side. My heart pounded as I found my first coin, a quarter! John poked me in the side as he found a dime and a quarter! Ten minutes and ten feet later I found a gold coin marked 2 ½ dollars! John found one with $10 and another with 2 ½ dollars, too! Silver dimes, quarters and couple of halves and a few dollars too! Treasure was there for the taking in Virginia City back in the summer of 1954! All in all we had more than $30 face value. Would have continued on but the boardwalk ended at a cross street!
I was not a coin collector at that time and turned the coins over to Mom and Dad for just plain paper money! I’m sure they just spent it or took it to the bank. It was just found money in those days.
0 years later my brother and I were discussing the adventure under the boardwalks of Virginia City, when he told me he traded me his small coins for my gold ones. Essentially he admitted that he took advantage of me and cheated me out of my gold. He did not give Mom and Dad the gold. He kept it. Oh, he no longer has it as it was stolen somewhere along the way. Sad but true.
That was my Virginia City in the summer of 1954.
Bob
Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
0
Comments
ive been eyeballing most of my life. i work for Amtrak in the bay area. our tracks run through several dumps, which i occationally look through on lunch breaks. today i walked through an area just south of SF. using a wood paint mixer, i smooth the dirt around. found a toasted, partially destroyed trade token. "royal novelty co. san francisco"
Gum on a stick, that really worked? I guess I should have chewed double bubble instead
of the Clove brand licorice! A dollar bill on a stick would be really cool, I must admit!
bob
at the end of the stick.Some where just better than others,and
never figured out why.
100% Positive BST transactions
of being young
When I was a kid I found some coins underneath our front porch. We were playing hide & seek and one time when I crawled under there I saw something shiny just sticking out of the dirt. It was a Merc dime. In all I think I found about a dozen or so coins, some wheaties and Indian pennies. And a standing liberty quarter. The soil was like powdered sugar or sand - really loose. I ran my fingers down in it & started pulling out some painted lead toy soldiers - found about a dozen of those. Figured some kid must have been playing with them years ago & forgot they were there. Don't really know what happened to them. I had 4 brothers & they probably ended up with them. But the coins did get me started with coin collecting. A few years later I had a Sunday paper route & would really get some nice coins in change. The paper was 15 cents. Got lots of Mercs & Franklins, occasionally some SLQ's. Would put them in the albums but then, eventually, would raid them when the desire for a soda or ice cream was stronger than filling the album. Even had some 09 VDB's. But not the 09 S's. Even back then those were nearly impossible to find. An alley ran behind our house & occasionally after it rained I'd see the top of a marble or two sticking out of the dirt right next to the alley. This went on for years. Never really understood how they got there. Some looked really old with bubbles inside. Well that's my walk down memory lane.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."
~ Vince Lombardi
bob
Years ago we spent about 10 years in Vermont. The house across the street was a big old farmhouse nearly 200 years old. With lattice skirting going around the porches. Wish I'd have thought of MDing in those days. Imagine what's under those porches.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."
~ Vince Lombardi
Thanks for sharing!