Confessions of a Rockhound

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Here is my sad story. Now normal little girls try to sneak their dolls into class. However, my parents went to the parent teacher conference where they had to face my awful secret. The teacher said, "Dee Ann is bright, but she just doesn't apply herself. She constantly daydreams, and the other day I looked in her desk expecting to find pencils, and hopefully schoolwork, but imagine my surprise when I found a desk full of these!" The teacher holds up a rock and shows my my parents my deep dark secret. Now any parent would be instantly concerned when a love for rocks interferes in their daughters schoolwork. I don't remeber my father saying anything about rocks. All I know is that one day my Dad showed up at home with the biggest machine I had ever seen, and a bunch of rocks. There were pieces of black jet and turquoise. My life was never the same. I think he spent like $200 on this machine to help me deal with my rock fetish in a healthy way. $200 was a lot of money for my Dad. I remember having so much fun with him. It gave me a chance to really spend time with him. We went on a 5 week vacation when I was 13 years old. Every Rock shop we passed as we traveled around america we bought a new and different local rock. Most of those rocks were lost in a move, but the memories that went with them weren't. My dad still has one of them.

We were driving through Arizona, and we went to Grand Canyon where Dad just lost his temper because it was so crowded we couldn't find a camping place. Anyway, let's just say that what I remember about the Grand Canyon was Dad yelling in one of the most beautiful vistas in the world. Needless to say we didn't camp. In Dad's defense, it was hot, he had 3 tired kids and a tired wife, and it was crowded and expensive. Anyway, as we drove out the back way from the Grand Canyon, we stopped at a flea market, where we found an old indian who was selling the most beautiful turquoise. This wasn't just any turquoise! It wasn't soft and crumbly like so much of the unstable turquoise is today. It was hard and deep dark blue with a beautiful black matrix. The man had the biggest turquoise nugget I have ever seen either before or since. It was perhaps 5-7 lbs, and he wanted $200 for it. Dad seriously considered buying the big one. Secretly I think he still wished he had. We bought a smaller piece about 8x4x1". it weighed about 1 1/2 lbs. Recently Dad was told this chunk was easily worth $1500. We paid $35. Can you imagine what the $200 piece would be worth? It was easily 12" long and 4" in diameter. Dad called me awhile back and told me he cut his first slab out of that gorgeous piece of turquoise. We hauled that turquoise every where we moved and he hauled with him several time since I moved out. I was kind of sorry to see it cut, even though I had begged him for years to cut it. I was sorry until I saw the slabs and cabs he was making. It is gorgeous beyond words.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littlebit@brightok.net), August 08, 2003

Answers

LB, we must be kindered spirits. Since I can remember, I have also had a facination with rocks. I remember taking a hammer and sitting in front of a pile of rocks and breaking them in half to see what the inside of them looked like. I liked the "sparkly" ones back then. Now days I search the property for rocks to build things out of. Finding the perfect ones that fit....you can't get any better than that! Dave just shakes his head and tells me I should have been a civil engineer. Wonder if there is a support group for us!? :)

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), August 09, 2003.

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