Son Hides His 'Stash,' Unprepared for What Mom Uncovers 25 Years Later

19 hours ago 2

A man's teenage secret has finally been exposed by his mother a quarter of a century later.

Posting on the r/funny subreddit, u/MastrOvNon shared an image of an old Guinness Book of Records volume, revealing two carved-out compartments in its pages.

The contents? A Zippo lighter and pack of Marlboro Reds.

Stash book
The Reddit user's stash book (a 1975 edition of The Guinness Book of Records) was discovered by his mother after 25 years. u/MastrOvNon

The original poster (OP), now 40 and living in the Southern U.S., guessed he was around 14 or 15 when he created the stash book. He had started smoking—a habit he wanted to hide from his parents—and needed a place to hide his cigarettes.

"Needless to say, smoking at [that age] was frowned upon," he told Newsweek. "Hence the need to conceal my newly adopted habit. Not long after that, my mom, who also used to smoke, and I started sharing cigarettes. My father wasn't happy about the arrangement."

After watching 1994 prison movie The Shawshank Redemption, the OP was inspired by Tim Robbins' character, Andy Dufresne, who had kept a rock hammer hidden inside a Bible.

"I thought it would make a good hiding spot for my pack of cigarettes and a Zippo lighter," he said.

Securing his copy of a 1975 edition of The Guinness Book of Records from his school library in Caracas, Venezuela, he traced out the shape of the items he wanted to stash using a Swiss Army knife.

"After a few hours and some adjustments, it was finished, and it served its purpose for a couple of years until I was caught," he said.

The book remained on a shelf along with some of his textbooks, DVDs and video game boxes in his childhood bedroom. The OP relocated to the U.S. in 2008, but the book was discovered when his parents began a remodeling project and came across it back in Venezuela.

"It's been 25 years, and my mom's reaction was to laugh. I wouldn't say I was a problem child, but I certainly gave them a run for their money during my teenage years," he said.

The post has received 41,000 upvotes and over 700 comments, with users sharing their stories of hiding items from their parents in their youth, mainly pornography and cannabis.

One user wrote: "I used to work at a dispensary and one year for Secret Santa I made a stash book for my co-worker. I found an old Joy of Baking book at Goodwill and hollowed it out with an exacto knife then used hodge podge to seal the pages. It turned out great and my gift was one of the best that year."

Looking back, the OP feels remorse for the missing library book that has been in his possession for decades. "I now regret defacing a book for my nefarious purposes, checking it out of the library and never returning it," he said.

The damaged, unreturned book aside, he was happy to report that both he and his mom eventually kicked their smoking habit.

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