Accidental Treasure Trove

Yesterday, we found a treasure trove in my basement – by accident.

To begin with, “we” would be my favorite son Ed Bowe, my favorite grandson Zack Bowe, and Yours Truly.

As it worked out, they came over the house to help me clean out the basement. It’s going to take a few days, but yesterday was a good start.

We began in one corner by tossing out four of the ugliest dining-room chairs I’ve ever seen – sort-of-pink velvet, high-back chairs that look uncomfortable as hell.

They’re formal-looking – and something I’d never own for sure. They belonged to a friend who dumped them in my basement 23 years ago – and they’ve sat there ever since. Their only purpose was to serve as scratching posts for my cats. But right now, all four chairs sit at the curb – along with some other crap that I hope someone takes.

In that same corner, we found some boxes to discard. In the process of moving them out of the house, Zack tossed a cardboard box from the deck onto the ground. We thought the box contained unused and unwanted flooring tiles – but it didn’t.

When the box hit the ground, it collapsed and spilled its contents. Ed and I cast disparaging glances at Zack and exhaled a collective “Shit” for adding an unwanted clean-up to our agenda. But our dismay quickly turned into surprise – and then joy.

Favorite ex Gretchen, favorite son Ed, & favorite grandson Zack

That box didn’t contain flooring tiles. It contained trading cards – baseball cards, football cards, and hockey cards – cards that Ed collected through two decades of living in Florida and Pennsylvania during the 1970s and 1980s of his youth. It contained cards that he’d long ago forgotten and assumed passed out of existence.

So we cut the basement cleanup short so we could examine the cards – many of which were encased in plastic. We didn’t have time to sort and catalog them – but a quick go-through revealed some beauties.

For instance, there’s a Dave Schultz with the Pittsburgh Penguins and – for the life of me – I don’t remember The Hammer playing for the Pens. And there’s a Jack Tatum with the Houston Oilers – and I don’t remember that either.