Another Hidden Vice

I recently posted a picture of a couple of old whiskey bottles I found hidden away in a nook above a workbench in the basement. Last evening I was down there on the stationary bike, headphones on with an old new wave mix in my ear and spacing out when something up in the ceiling rafters above the laundry appliances caught my eye. A flash of color in the dark.

I found something to stand on and reached into the small space between the wood rafters to finally pull out a dirt covered what turned out to be a can of tobacco.  A Sir Walter Raleigh container of loose pipe and cigarette tobacco from the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp, Louisville Kentucky. An quick online search determined the can was from the 1920's and maybe specifically 1926. We'll get it cleaned up and see if it might be worth a little something.

It is interesting that this is the second container of a hidden vice I found in the basement. I might grab a flashlight and do a systematic survey of the basement rafters. I recently met a couple of people who grew up in this house in the 1940's thru the early 60's and I know the man of the house in the 20's was a dentist who had an office around the corner in a building that now houses a restaurant across the street from the zoo. Apparently the dentist liked his whiskey and tobacco but perhaps his wife was a member of the temperance union.

I posted about this on FB which generated some conversation. A couple of folks suggested I needed look for cash that might have been hidden away. Alas, no cash.

There were also comments about the old phone prank joke where someone calls a phone number and ask "Do you have Sir Walter Raleigh in a can?" and if the person says yes the reply would be "you better let him out". 

The last photo is the place in the right corner of the rafters where the can was found.