You'd be amazed what you can find on a walk - a boy and his dad prove it
Arizona Coin Collector
http://www.idahostatesman.com/1430/story/623125.html
You'd be amazed what you can find on a walk - a boy and his dad prove it
- MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Edition Date: 01/05/09
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Every day, Keith Severin and his
8-year-old son, Adrien, go on a treasure hunt.
They take a walk somewhere in their Antelope, Calif.,
neighborhood, or wherever they happen to be that day,
and keep their eyes open for treasures.
As a kid, almost everything is a treasure to Adrien.
He never met a stick he didn't like.
"When we first started, he would pick up everything,"
Severin said.
They set out Jan. 1 with a plan to go out every day
of 2008 for at least 15 minutes.
They stuck with it and over the course of the year
have stumbled upon quite a bit of treasure.
On the refrigerator at home is a juice jug full of
thousands of pennies they've found. There's also a
big Bubba Gump beer glass full of other change,
nickels to a Sacagawea dollar.
There's a small collection of older coins - including
a penny from 1928 and some silver dimes - and a handful
of foreign coins and Scandia tokens.
In a can, Keith Severin keeps a small collection of
Ben Franklins - $100 bills that represent the proceeds
from things found and sold.
That includes cans, bottles, a golf bag pull cart, a
silver necklace and lots and lots of golf balls,
collected at nearby Cherry Island Golf Course.
They passed the $1,000 mark early in December - all
from walks as short as 15 minutes.
It hasn't always been fun. They head out in whatever
weather presents itself. Good thing it's California.
They went out one recent December day when it was
sprinkling a bit.
Adrien had been asking to go, but ended up not
enjoying the soaking.
"I didn't know it was going to be that bad," he said.
They also didn't know it was going to be that good - in
treasure hunting terms - when they started at the outset
of 2008.
It began by chance.
"I came out of a store one day and a guy asked me for
some change," Severin said. "I took about two steps
and found a dime on the ground."
He combined that with a childhood memory of camping
with his grandparents. They would send the kids out to
see what they could find around the campsites.
Severin thought about how he'd worked so much during
Adrien's first five years of life, that he didn't get
to see him much.
Severin was a market meat cutter, but now works with
his wife providing home day care.
"It's kind of nice to spend time with him and get to
know him," he said.
They talk, not about the treasure, but about vacation,
what's going on at home, school.
Adrien's math grades, not incidentally, have gone up
since they started doing this. He keeps track of what
they find and adds it up in his head.
At the neighborhood Bel Air market recently, Adrien
used his homemade poking-around stick - it has a
paint brush on one end - to fish around under a vending
machine while his dad mailed a package.
Adrien found some pennies and a nickel under a
change-sorting machine. He found a dime and some more
pennies in sidewalk cracks near the store.
He also found a faux-gem stud earring, while his dad
found yet another in a series of souvenir
pennies - the kind you pay 50 cents to smash at the
amusement park. This one featured Mickey Mouse.
Adrien suggested selling it.
Father and son both talk of writing books based on
their experiences.
These include Adrien poking at the minnows in creeks
and his dad collecting scratches looking for golf
balls in berry patches.
They once found a wallet and returned it. Adrien
got $10.
They've been offered money by people who thought
they were homeless because they dig in trash
receptacles for recyclable cans and bottles.
Their adventure came to an end Wednesday with
their 365th hunt.
A year is enough, said Severin.
What will happen to the money is uncertain.
"I'm going to spend it on a Ferrari," Adrien
said, but later he amended that to a Corvette.
In the end, he said with all the gravity a freckled
third-grader can muster, "only the future will tell."
..
I'll Always Be 06/01/09
news:6r87m418ms9sec8js...@4ax.com:
> On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 07:37:49 -0700, "Arizona Coin Collector"
> <nos...@nospam.com> wrote:
>
> Stop spamming the group you bloody yank!
Newsgroup, yes, singular, restored.
Why did you spam this, cramer? Why did you add newsgroups?
Path: news.solani.org!feeder1.news.weretis.net!newsfeeder.dynfx.net!
weretis.net!news.glorb.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!
border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!
local02.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.earthlink.com!
news.earthlink.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:37:52 -0600
Reply-To: "Arizona Coin Collector" <nos...@nospam.com>
From: "Arizona Coin Collector" <nos...@nospam.com>
Newsgroups: rec.collecting.coins
Subject: You'd be amazed what you can find on a walk - a boy and his dad
prove it
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 07:37:49 -0700
Organization: Who do you trust
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5579
X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original
Message-ID: <c6KdnZAJ2Oxc8f7U...@earthlink.com>
Lines: 136
X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: 4.240.51.206
X-Trace: sv3-
4YEDGak036cqe9aUfN5/e46HiFDcplPQW9kXCG0Dc/ufBVsQsSbD+jeD6ZuUe8/XzUXHfdDz2r
CPrQT!
T9QkiKBjH5D/G4bOh2VikhqaZNfSVBWuf/bqtUBOiS89opNHSFIkRBXIQMF6jjo+WejpjLRVTw
b5!TXYHIagNzmd/JsUchfI0LlB50Yt+cK9Z
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your
complaint properly
X-Postfilter: 1.3.39
Xref: news.solani.org rec.collecting.coins:35135
les.p...@gmail.com
> On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 07:37:49 -0700, "Arizona Coin Collector"
>
> <nos...@nospam.com> wrote:
>
> Stop spamming the group you bloody yank!
I found it to be a nice story, actually. There is lots of coins and
other valuables to be found
just by looking down at the ground (found a $20 in an elevator lobby
once, as well as a 1957
Washington quarter in the middle of the woods while my father was
hunting).
celtex
news:c6KdnZAJ2Oxc8f7U...@earthlink.com...
Nice story. I metal detect with my 3 and 2 yr olds. Nice outings (most of
the time) and have paid for my three detectors in just one year! So fun,
healthy and pays for itself. Not many hobbies can claim that.
Jim