A friend in Plumstead Township was kind enough to let me search his yard with my metal detector on Saturday. Along with some old nails and about a million pieces of old aluminum foil, I popped out these beauties.
The first good find was obviously a hinge -- someone later said it looked like part of an old drawer pull -- but the second find was very mysterious indeed.
It didn't look like much at first, all encrusted with mud and rust, but I threw it in the plastic bag with the rest of my finds. When I got it home, however, a quick rinse revealed a faint hint of some old text enscribed on one of the pieces.
Text, as you know, is history geek gold, because you can search online and usually come up with something. Imagine my geekish glee when what seemed to be junk turned out to be ... you'll never guess ...
An old harmonica!
I know, right?
If you look closely, the plate reads (in gorgeous old-timey script) "Original Emmet Richter / STEEL BRONZE REEDS."
(As an aside, I brought my new treasure to show some friends at The Intelligencer. I was planning on teasing them, you know, "So, fellas, whaddaya think this ol' thing could possibly be?" Alas: As soon as I took it out of my bag, Matt exclaims "Oh wow, an old harmonica!"
Curses. Foiled again.)
Anyway, more to come! I spent fifteen minutes yesterday yanking what turned out to be an old rusty horseshoe out of the mud.
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