Wasn’t that the movie “The long long trailer”?
I remember it well.......loved it.
I never could decide if I were the loopy Lucille Ball or Ma Kettle [Marjorie Main].
Bill always said that I never met a rock that I did not like, and he would not carry them for me.
He promised me ‘Thunder Eggs’, in Oregon, which we never did find.
And being me, I bought a bunch of books and became a dyed in the wool rock hound.........a great hobby, as no matter where you go, you can hunt...........if you don’t have many local rocks, then go and search the railroad tracks, I have found some nice ones there.
In Ramona California, the streets were paved with gold.......they used the rocks from what was considered a “too low grade gold mine” and crushed them for building the streets, so I looked always alongside the roads of Ramona.
When they cut into the banks of the hills, for the new roadways, check them closely, once they cut into a vug of quartz crystals, about as long as your little finger, I got half a gallon of them and that was after all the people who found them got theirs.
We also spent several years prospecting for gold and silver and commercial grade jewelry rock to mine.
It appears that I have been involved in it long enough, to qualify for the Arizona Miners Old Folks home.........at least I will understand what they are talking about.
Being me, I also got into treasure hunting.
Most of my published writing was articles on mining and the museums here still hand some of them out.
I knew the mining history of this area well enough to earn the label of historian.
For several years, I was president of our local mining and treasure hunting group.
LOL, they allowed me to be, I have often thought, so I would keep taking them on prospecting trips, to areas that I knew and they did not.......plus I knew the history of the areas.
I sold my dry washer, but still have my sluice box and the Briggs and Stratton motor, hidden from most people.
I still get people who want into my files, or for me to mark their maps for them.
Most of the areas that I knew are now closed, BLM and the tree huggers locked us out.
Yes to hunting rocks in streams, LOL, they are often smooth and you can add eyes and make them have a personality. Or paint them, do a google search for painted rocks.....some of them are good.
Rocks will contain the same views, when sliced, that you see in the world, mountains and clouds and once a man found one that looked like a space man in it........it was in the Yuma paper.
I took my grandmother with me to a rock shop, that was an
experience.......LoL, she looked at every rock and kept saying
“all those years that I worked in the field and moved the rocks, I did not know they could look like this...”
She actually approved of my rock hunting after that day.
LOL Haven’t thought about Ma and Pa Kettle in ages!
The rocks I got from Cherokee—I painted one as a ladybug for each of my sister’s and brother’s families and one for ours and my parents. I put the date and family vacation on the bottom. They loved tehm, and it made a nice paperweight sized momento.
We lived in southern Ohio when I was little. I spent endless days rock hunting. Once, I was so involved in rock hunting, I found two that looked like fish. I took them home and showed them to my dad. He busted out laughing. We were always looking for arrowheads, and I had found two perfect ones but I was so involved in “rocks”, I hadn’t even noticed!
North Carolina has some great rocks and gem mines in teh mountains. Nothing but sand and shells on the coast.
Sounds like you had a great time prospecting! I would love to try, but I’m afraid the desert heat would do me in. Isn’t it fun to write about something you love/love to do!