Take The Money And Run

Gold Is Where You Find It...

Y'all remember that case of the stolen gold bar from a few weeks ago?

Back in August, a couple of thieves removed a 4.5 pound gold bar worth half a million bucks from the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida.

The story jogged my memory, and sent me on a hunt for a 32 year old snapshot.

Found it!



That's me back in 1975 or 1976, at a museum in the Florida Keys. It may have been an early version of the Mel Fisher museum, but it was located on a sailing ship, and some Googling didn't locate anything of that type still existing today.

The photo quality isn't great, (probably taken with Mom's Vivitar pocket camera using 110 cartridge film...) but you can see the gold bar in one hand, and the long gold chain around my neck. As I recall, the value of the bar was $40,000, and the chain was around $250,000. That's in 1976 dollars, mind you. Melted down, it would bring a lot less since you'd be obliterating any historical value.

The exhibits were in the hold of the ship, and it was too dark to get a good picture. I'm amazed that they let us take them up on deck to get the photo. Nowadays, insurance companies would shit out rabid kittens just at the thought of that happening.

For good reason, too. Even at that tender age, the thought crossed my mind to take a running dive off the side of the ship and swim to the Bahamas...