By Victoria Mullen, WKTV VOICES
For 33 years, Joseph Cramer sent area residents on mind-bending treasure hunts. Not for the short on patience, each hunt began with a nebulous riddle and ended with a prize: a silver medallion from Cramer’s vast collection.
One riddle went like this: Riding my bicycle fast enough to almost soar; seeing plastic shredding from my shoelaces. I think not but doggone. I stop at the first just for safety’s sake. There you go. It’s there.
Yup. That’s it. But there was a method to this madness — a curious combination of silver and carbon monoxide.
First, the silver: Cramer grew up idolizing the Lone Ranger, who was all about silver. (Think: silver bullets. Even his horse was named Silver.) So, Cramer began collecting silver. To this day, he prefers it to gold.
But it was exposure to carbon monoxide in an industrial accident in the late 1970s that changed Cramer’s life forever and put him on the path to creating riddles. The poison affected Cramer’s memory, and he didn’t know who he was. He also lost his social skills.
“It caused amnesia for two years,” said Cramer. “I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. And I had no feelings. And then in 1980, I started to come out of it but I was confused. I thought in very strange ways. It was difficult.”
A friend suggested that Cramer create riddles that mirrored his thoughts. He did, and in this way, exercised his mind. The process helped him recover. It took months, years to get his memory back.
“The riddle is a fun way for people by chance or by intent to learn about carbon monoxide poisoning and what it can do,” said Cramer, who became known as ‘The Wyoming Riddler’. “I’ve never wanted anybody or their family to go through what my family and I did. And it brought me out of my shell.”
The riddles were designed to be difficult. And what better way to reward a hardworking riddle-solver than with a silver medallion?
But how could Cramer possibly foresee the immense popularity of his riddle-making? Well, he couldn’t. From a mere few folks at first, to hundreds of people from across the globe requesting riddles, the venture took on a huge life of its own.
But still, what remained at the heart of the matter was Cramer’s wish to warn people about carbon monoxide poisoning.
“When I talk about carbon monoxide poisoning, I want each and every person to get a little bit of an idea what it was like for me not to have any past,” said Cramer. “Without a past, you can’t create a future. And these riddles — nobody’s ever read anything like that before, so they didn’t have anything to go by. And so I kind of brought them in a little bit.”
Listen to Cramer’s entire conversation here.
VOICES, a personal and family history project collects, preserves, and shares the narratives and memories of West Michigan people from all backgrounds, beliefs and experiences. It’s absolutely free. The only cost is your time and your story, whatever that may be. VOICES offers a comfortable portable video recording studio within a relaxed atmosphere.
Know a few people who’d like to share their personal or family stories and experiences at your location? VOICES will come to you! VOICES is the perfect vehicle for collecting stories from retirement communities, schools or similar organizations where people are motivated and interested in preserving their memories for posterity.
It’s a great way to commemorate significant milestones, enrich relationships, and connect with people who are important to your organization.
To learn more, call 616.261.5700 and ask for VOICES, or email Victoria at victoria@wktv.org .
To reserve a time to share your memories, go here .
