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| LIAM WITH ONE OF HIS VALUABLES |
I wonder what was valuable to my younger self? I had not seen the box in 34 years, yet every year in March we get a bill, pay it and never visit it. This year when I saw the bill I decided it was time to open this treasure box. Over the years, I had paid a cumulative total of over 3000 dollars for the privilege of having Chase protect my valuables. I hoped it had my Social Security card and maybe my hospital birth certificate. The NYC Birth certificates (ones with the raised seal) are so easy to get that it sure would not be worth renting a box for that.
At 26, I had no house-no deed, no marriage, no life insurance (still do not), no will (still do not), no bonds (had cashed them in immediately with no net gain), What the heck was in this box?
Liam keeps his valuables in one area. So brave, just out there for all to see.
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| LIAM'S TREASURES |
I had a key that I thought was the key to the box. It was big and on a key-chain that I stored away in a sort of jewelry box. It looked like the key to a jail cell or a castle, so that had to be it. This giant key had traveled from two Fresh Meadows apartments to our current home in New Hyde Park.
I set out on my mission, taking side streets all the way to Fresh Meadows, enjoying the old and new additions to the neighborhood. I parked, entered the bank. There was no sign for what I needed, so I waited within the velvet ropes with the other customers. When I arrived at the teller's window, I explained that I wanted to look at my safety deposit box. I think she had expected a routine transaction and seemed a little startled. But she shut down her window and emerged at the end of teller's row waving me to follow her. Together we went into a room with hundreds of boxes. She asked for the box number and I said I had no memory of it. She looked it up-435, sounded sort of familiar but I never would have come up with that combination of numbers. I was amazed that my signature at 26 was almost the same as it is today at 60 (when I try to be neat, that is)
And then I was shown to a little booth and left alone. My excitement level was high. Treasures of youth to be excavated. I opened the box. Three items. I really could not believe my eyes. Seriously, I was stunned. These items are what I have paid several thousand dollars to keep safe for over three decades!
Ready for the big Secret of the Safety Deposit box (I loved Nancy Drew novels as a child)
1-NYC raised seal birth certificate. Difficulty in obtaining one- none. Worth secreting away. laughable.
2- Receipt for Medeco lock for my apartment in Fresh Meadows. That would be 3 addresses removed from
my current home and 34 years of time. Did I think someone was going to ask for proof of payment?
3-Photocopy of a poem written for and about me by a long ago poet friend Not signed, not handwritten, not the original. On a typewriter. No computers in 1977.
I came out of my closet booth with these valuable documents. I told the teller I was closing down my safety deposit box. No point in keeping a safety deposit box here. I no longer live in Fresh Meadows.
Undoing my long relationship with my safety deposit box proved complicated and labor intensive. I was escorted to the sitting area for a personal consult. When I admitted under questioning that I had only one key, not the two I had been given years ago, I then was taken to the manager. We are now a group of three. I tell all how I have been paying a fee to hide three items no one would steal. No one thinks this is funny except me. A fourth and fifth person are now called over. Two witnesses must be present-one for the handing over of the key to my safety deposit box and the other must write a receipt for the money I owe for the missing key.
And it is done. The ties broken. I am free.
I threw away the Medeco receipt.
I put my birth certificate with the other common NYC ones.
I have the poem out by the PC. I intend to type it into word and save it in my online safe deposit box, entitled Documents.
Do I intend to get another safety deposit box here in New Hyde Park? Yes.
I have Googled "what do you put in a safety deposit box?" and have been collecting a group of worthy items.
Liam has been watching, he is now concerned about his treasures.
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| LOOKING FOR A HIDING PLACE |
See link. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/garden/05safes.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
Folks now want their treasures close to home. Easy to access.
Liam keeps looking for a spot in the house.
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| BEHIND THE COUCH? |
He has watched a commercial on TV for Travelers Insurance. In it, the dog finds a safe place for his beloved bone. Liam thinks we should both go to Travelers. Important treasures must be guarded and kept safe. And easily accessible.
He has more treasures than I do right now.
My grown-up person safety deposit box will have some important documents but it also might have the whimsy of a poem just like Liam's bone.
Doesn't have to be legal to be a treasure.
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| LIAM UNDER TREASURED PAINTING |
I will get that safety deposit box.
I will also use my hollowed-out book and pretty container boxes.
No home safe though.
Hide in plain sight.
Woof, Woof
