[ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] [ midtempo music plays ] im jamie colby, and today im heading to the annual blueberry festival in plymouth, indiana. Its not exactly the kind of place youd expect to see a massive california redwood, but this tree rocks because it rolls. My name is jamie allen, and, in 1985, when i was 23, my father passed away, and he left me something that his father left him, and its kept me on the road all my life. Jamie . Jamie . [ chuckles ] how are you . Its really great to meet you. And how funny we have the same name. Lets get started, then. All right, here we go. This is one serious tree trunk. [ midtempo folk music plays ] and the root of the story, according to jamie, is in the late 1930s. When her grandfather, james allen, is a lumberjack in northern california. James, a widower with a son in the army, sees redwood trees so massive that several men can easily fit inside the hollowed trunks. One day, during a sudden rain squal
[ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] [ midtempo music plays ] im jamie colby, and today im heading to the annual blueberry festival in plymouth, indiana. Its not exactly the kind of place youd expect to see a massive california redwood, but this tree rocks because it rolls. My name is jamie allen, and, in 1985, when i was 23, my father passed away, and he left me something that his father left him, and its kept me on the road all my life. Jamie . Jamie . [ chuckles ] how are you . Its really great to meet you. And how funny we have the same name. Lets get started, then. All right, here we go. This is one serious tree trunk. [ midtempo folk music plays ] and the root of the story, according to jamie, is in the late 1930s. When her grandfather, james allen, is a lumberjack in northern california. James, a widower with a son in the army, sees redwood trees so massive that several men can easily fit inside the hollowed trunks. One day, during a sudden rain squal
Im jamie colby, and today im in birmingham, alabama, which is in the rolling foothills of the appalachians. They say that wars are fought to change maps, and this episode of strange inheritance is actually about a map, a very old map, and one that survives in a family whose history spans from texas to virginia and then back here to alabama. My name is Patrick Martin. My parents died in 1999, and my sister and i inherited the house and contents. We were surprised when we figured out what it contained. The house that patrick and his sister, peggy, inherited here in birmingham is now their home. Patrick, thank you so much for having me over. Its our pleasure. Patricks parents moved to alabama from maryland and bought the house in the 1960s. Patrick, an architect, returns to take care of his ill parents in 1994 but then has his own health scare. I had a quintuple bypass surgery here. Patricks heart trouble leads him to an early retirement at age 47. With lots of time on his hands, he start
i m jamie colby, and i m in the berkshire mountains on my way to great barrington, massachusetts. i m meeting a woman whose ancestor played on one of the great teams in the early days of baseball. his picture is on her strange inheritance, which may just be the world s oldest baseball card. my name is florence sasso. my great-great-uncle archibald mcmahon was a member of the 1860s atlantic nine baseball team. i inherited this card from my mother when she passed away. hi. i m jamie. hi. i m florence. heard you have a great story and a very strange inheritance. also heard you re a new york girl. yes. i m from queens. i m a brooklyn girl. uh-oh. 75-year-old flo lives alone and runs an electrolysis business from her house. what a lovely home. she explains that fate has handed her a very unusual inheritance in the form of a 2 1/2-by-4-inch antique baseball card. oh, my goodness. is this what i think it is, florence? may i touch it? sure. look at the players.
[ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] im jamie colby, and im driving into portales, new mexico, along the texas border and near the Cannon Air Force base. You know, the welcome sign here says it all 17,000 friendly people and three or four old grouches . Im here to meet a man whose strange inheritance certainly called for that kind of sense of humor. My name is john wall. My mother, irene wall, passed at 90 years old. She had left me with a very large collection that meant a lot to her, but i didnt know what to do. Great. So nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Welcome to my home. Well, so, what do think of all these dolls . Wow this is kind of the way it was in my moms house, only there were so many more. Johnny, i feel like im 8 years old again with all these dolls. Well, i have the reputation around here as the doll boy but i dont know anything about them. Looking around, you have earned that reputation. What are you going to do . The goal of my moms and mine was to find a