Before I was even in kindergarten I loved rocks. My grandpa Art picked up rocks on his Iowa farm such as agates and Indian artifacts. He had a big tree in his front yard surrounded with rocks he collected in Iowa, California, etc. Sometimes he'd let me pick one out of the pile for me to keep. First he'd explain what kind of rock it was and where he got it from. I still have geodes, petrified wood, agates, arrowheads, etc. that he gave me.
In first grade my teacher gave me a hammer to crack open rocks during recess. I wanted to see sparkles inside of ugly rocks. While growing up I walked along rivers, railroad tracks, gravel roads, farm fields, etc. looking for rocks. During my teenage years I boxed up all my rocks and forgot them for many years.
Finally in my 40's I dug out my rock collection to show my husband. He was amazed at my variety of specimens and encouraged me to display them. Once again I am truly facinated with rocks, minerals, fossils, and Indian artifacts. During a week's vacation I got on EBAY and bought lots of beautiful mineral specimens. I got hooked and I can't stop. An extra bedroom has now become my nature room as I call it. I've displayed all my specimens on the walls, on shelves, and on the floor. I hung pictures that I took all over the country of mountains, sunsets, waterfalls, fjords, and the Statue of Liberty to compliment my display specimens.
Now I have gotten my niece, Megan to appreciate rock collecting. I've given her some of my specimens to start her collection. Neighbor kids from my block love to come over and look at my collection. Getting children involved in natural formations on this earth is wonderful.
Get the passion flowing in others for God's wonders. Teach others what this Earth has to offer. That is my story...Now tell yours!
ah, when I was 6 or 7 I got the smithsonian rock tumbler and jewelry making kit...... It was all over from there :) Now if someone waves a sparkly shiney rock in my face I get all goose bumpy LOL!
Walking to and from K-2nd grade school was about 4 blocks distance. One of the homes had several large 'plates' of limestone in their front yard near the sidewalk. Each of these 2x4 foot plates was a classroom of wonder - covered with seashells, horn coral that looked like cow horns, trilobites, sponges and other corals. But the ocean is hundreds and hundreds of miles from southern Ohio.
A wonderful local museum had several displays of what the aquatic lifeforms looked like when the world's largest trilobite, about 3 feet long, was swimming the seas that covered Ohio.
I was hooked! And I began an active love of fossils, rocks, science and learning. My grandfather added to my appreciation every time he shared his cigar box display collection of moths, butterflys, beetles and collected nature.
His collection undoubtedly ended up in a dump somewhere. I consider it a family loss. Each of us needs to think about our collected 'treasures' and what we would like to have them go if something happened to us. If it isn't in you will, your collection may not be appreciated, valued, treasured or saved by someone who shares your love for them!
It was a mild summer day in 1958 and I was where I spent much of my time as a young boy growing up in central Iowa. I was down on the Raccoon River fishing. The fishing was slow, as a good rain had flushed my honey hole, or so I thought. It was still a great spot to skip rocks, climb trees, catch frogs or try to hit a squirrel or a muskrat with a stone.
I had just landed a small catfish when I saw an old man walking down the bank to a large sandbar, maybe 100 yards from my fishing hole. I watched as the old man meticulously started at one end of the bar and worked his way to the other, stopping occasionally to pick something up and put it in his sack. Then this old man did something different. He picked something up, and with a spring in his step that I had not noticed before, went to the water’s edge, washed something off, looked at it for some time and then put it in his pocket. Well, knowing that you only put good stuff in your pockets, like marbles, baseball cards, money… Gold, this could be gold! Everyone knows you find gold in rivers. I thought it was time to check this out.
I walked down the bank to the sandbar and made my way towards the old man. “What ya doin’ Mister?” Little did I know that this was the beginning of an 18-month friendship that would stay with me the rest of my life. The old man replied, “I’m looking for agates, fossils and Indian artifacts.” With what I’m sure was a confused look on my face I asked, “Did you find any gold?” The old man laughed and replied, “No, I didn’t find any gold but I’ll show you what I did find.” He pulled a very nice Indian arrowhead from his pocket and handed it to me to look at. Then he opened his sack and pulled out 3 small Lake Superior agates and 4 or 5 nice pieces of petrified wood and said, “This is what I’m looking for.” My immediate reply was, “Can I help?”
I spent the next 3 or 4 hours walking and talking with my new friend, Henry, on that sandbar on the Raccoon River. He told me of places he had been, looking for his treasures and places that he still wanted to go. He told me about how the agates where formed and how the glaciers brought them here. We talked about how the Indian had made the arrowhead that Henry had found and we talked about the squirrel that I missed with a stone that day. Henry was sure the squirrels name must have been Lucky! I found a few Lakers that day, after Henry showed me what to look for. One of them is still among my treasures.
Henry Stevens would later show me how to cut, polish and tumble rocks as he did with many young people in Jefferson, Iowa. Henry’s home was often a gathering place for children after school as he took the time to show them his rock, fossil and artifact displays, explaining how rocks have been used as tools, how they formed and sharing the excitement of being the first human being to see and touch a rock that was formed millions of years ago.
I moved away from that small Iowa town, less than 2 years after meeting my friend, Henry, but whenever I get back that way I have to check to see if that old river has put that sandbar back where it belongs…maybe I’ll run into a young boy fishing.
I recently sold my fishing tackle supply company in Lincoln, Nebraska and have semi- retired. I have started a small company called “The Rock Tumbler” and sell lapidary (rock cutting and polishing) equipment and supplies on Ebay and my web site.
My parents were rockhounds back in the old days- 1950s & 60s. Every vacation we took was to somewhere in the western United States to hunt for rocks. Mom was really the motivating force behind this. It was a great childhood. We went to so many places and brought home so many different kinds of rocks. As a child, it was great to be able to run around in the desert. Mom made me wear a red sweatshirt so she could see me easily. Every Thanksgiving was spent out in the deserts of southern California with the Santa Monica Gem & Mineral Club. Sometimes we would drive up a dry creekbed and camp where ever we wanted. I'm sure that many of the places we went to are off limits now. I've picked up wire wrapping and have so many rocks that mom has given me, I could work until I die and still there would be rocks left over. Genie
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