Stumbling across lost treasure

There are so many stories about people finding lost class rings, antique coins, gold nuggets and all kinds of treasures just laying on the ground waiting to be found. Some of you may remember Casey Kasem, long-time host of the American Top 40 countdown broadcast. Casey would close each radio show with the phrase “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.” Inspiring as that quote may be, it is completely contrary to, and will work against, efforts on your part to find your own treasure. More about that to follow.

The single most treasured thing that I have personally found is an arrowhead. It was found one cloudy afternoon in a dry riverbed outside of Burnet, TX, a place where I’d searched many times before but had always come up empty. But this time as I was strolling along and kicking at the dirt and gravel, I found it. I really love the little arrowhead, particularly because it is something found. It wasn’t given as a gift or purchased in a trading post. It was just sitting there meekly waiting to be discovered.

I like to think that my arrowhead was dropped by some local Indians from the 1800s in the days of the wild west. But a friend of mine who knows about arrowheads took a look and estimated its age to be in the thousands of years. Just imagine, all that time in a riverbed, and now it lives in my den.

Someone I know very well has been finding things throughout her entire life. Over the years, she has discovered a small but impressive collection of jewelry, a few $100 casino poker chips, and also cash. Lots and lots of cash. When I asked how she manages to find all these things, she said it was simple: you just need to look at where you are walking. Completely the opposite of Casey Kasem’s advice about reaching for the stars. True dat: You’ll never find an arrowhead looking up at stars.

She said one thing she found that caused her the most stress was a man’s wallet. Even though it was turned in immediately to local authorities without her even looking inside it, she knew that if there were money missing from within it, she would automatically be the prime suspect.

There was a time when living in Los Angeles that I found $20 in a bar, which I, of course, instantly wagered on a keno machine and turned it into $80. Thinking I was on a roll, I drove straight to Las Vegas – for a three-hour tour. But as happens so often in Vegas, there was to be no happy ending. About $380 later, I was back home finding myself just a little more broke. And all this happened over a single lost and found Jackson. Go figure.

Incidentally, to the person or persons who stole my Microsoft Office, I will find you. You have my Word.

Johnny McNally is Grimes County’s Best Dressed Businessman advocating for Grimes County and writes a bi-weekly column for the Navasota Examiner.