Shouts From Down Under

Word archaeology; treasures are just waiting to be found...!

Do you ever do any digging in the back garden? Growing some vegies? Putting in a shed foundation? Running some storm water so the yard doesn't get so soggy? Renovating the back fence? Mundane stuff.

But, your house is old; old enough to maybe have something interesting hiding in the soil, and I don't mean a murder victim in a shallow grave, or in a deeper one under the oh-so-lucious roses. ("They grow so well there Harold, I don't know how you do it!")

Ahem. No, sometimes you hear of people finding something valuable, something historical, an antiquity, an artifact, maybe even that rare penny our parents always told us about, and you wanted to rush out, buy the latest metal detector and search for it right away.

http://www.sterlingcurrency.com.au/research/1930-penny-australias-best-known-rar...

Today, I found something a little bit older than normal (thats about the best we'll ever do in our 1950's house), hanging in the walls as it must have been when the builder lined the bathroom. Perhaps it's not that old and the bathroom was renovated less than 25 years ago.

Ok I just googled Masonite, the subject of my amazing "find" and perhaps it's not so old as I thought. We've been in the house...must be 15 years at least, closer to 20. My wife knows that sort of detail, not me.

The Masonite Corporation at Raymond Terrace New South Wales, was established in 1938, but who knows when this particular sheet was sold here in Tasmania, and installed in our house. The date on our back door step (concrete) was written by hand (fingers) and says 1950.

Anyway it's a label stating what company (As above) made the sheet of wall lining, and details about how to install it.



Here's the bathroom as it was last night, with the vanity and loo placed temporarily in position but not yet plumbed.



And here it is today, more sheets of the old Masonite ripped out and new Gyprock plaster sheet fixed in, or "hung".



The label got me thinking about the treasures we can dig up in real time, during our writing. They are just sitting there, waiting to be thought out, manipulated into something of real value, rare, sought after, words and phrases and sentences that people read and know they have read something great.

The price of these things...surely, these little literary diamonds, or small nuggets of wisdom or originality, surely they are priceless? I mean, what price can you place on something that will still uplift someone, still change people, many years from now?

Words can be a treasure. Sometimes it just takes a little digging. And if everyone else has been there before, then dig a little deeper. Look for that treasure, 'cos it aint dropping out of the sky into our laps.

Sparky