Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Found Money on Toboggan Trail

Keep your eyes peeled when the snow melts! Dumpdiggers appreciates any form of extra income that might be found lying on the ground.


Just before Christmas 07, while walking with Digger, I cut through a ravine that's park land near the Humber River in north Toronto.

It was right after the first heavy snowfall in December, and I noticed the neighbourhood children getting good exercise tobogganing down a nearby hill.

The gentle slope of this park’s north end has probably been used by generations of young people for this same activity every winter - I suspect a nearby sign that reads ‘No Tobogganing’ plants the idea.

Anyway Digger and I also happened to observe these young rascals had fashioned a ramp halfway down the hill, and they were getting good height in jumps made with those black plastic Canadian Tire brand GT Racers.

Fast forward to January 8th, 2008 and note how the weather is unseasonably mild. Today the snow outside is melting.

This morning I happened to find myself 'off the leash' with Digger near our local ‘ski hill’ in that same ravine parkland reserve.

Much like the Wise Old Man whom I sincerely admire, I too had the presence of mind to look down at the ground as I passed through the toboggan alley. I kept a sharp eye out for coins, keys, jewelry or even those metallic bus tokens – anything that didn’t look natural.

Sure enough, to my immense satisfaction, I found a small deposit of Canadian currency totaling $1.32 twelve feet below the ramp in the melting snow of the toboggan run. Without question this discovery evidences a spectacular wipe-out in which the contents of one passenger’s pockets were violently emptied into the snow. What’s more interesting is that this same activity has no doubt occurred countless times in this very place for the last hundred years - maybe longer. The top soil in this patch of local history is probably primed with a century of spilled coins!

Note to all coin collectors and treasure hunters with metal detectors – be sure and sweep the toboggan hills in your hometown.

1 comment:

Neil Richard said...

Too bad the metal detectors don't pick up the paper money.