What unusual items do you have around the old homestead???

[tonym]

I spent a weekend in Verdun, France in the early 80s with some buddies, and we took some metal detectors with us out into the trenches and woods. Dug up some WWI artifacts - a French cantine, one of those old wooden-handle styled hand grenades (the wood is long since gone, and the grenade itself has rusted through - no gunpowder), and a bullet or two from 1916. One of the other guys ended up with a rifle. This picture isn't mine, but shows a similar grenade body (the one on the left), a rifle, and some bullets.

I believe most of the area has been completely cleared now, and what hasn't been cleared is probably much better secured from people wanting keepsakes.

I find this fascinating having visited Verdun twice, (once in a neutralised section of the Circuit des Mines halfway through the stage) because like anything to do with mass suffering, war etc. I can't keep a lid on it; the floodgates are at breaking point as soon as I approach these places. You must have strong stomachs if you managed to root around there Of course, I'm not being disrespectful there, different people react so different to situations anyhow.