Imagine Youre Back In The Year 1959

[Michigan Badger]

Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

What if you could go back in time to 1959 or some earlier time?

What would you do?

You can comment about metal detecting or whatever you want.

I picked 1959 only because this is the year Ken White produced his coin/relic metal detector.

Remembering the good old days.

 

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[Nana40]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

Yes....kinda quiet today.

Let me see....1959....I wasn't here yet!


DO tell YOUR thoughts though!

 

[ZumbroKid]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

Well, back in 1959! I'd know everything! cause it is a proven fact as you get older you forget more and know less. So being as I'm back before i'm born, i'd be a store house of all the world's knowledge. I'd invent long range locating rods and scam people of there hard earned money before the word scam had a meaning. Then I'd invest this money into the hoola hoop and the frisby! With those proceeds I'd sign the beattles and Elvis to a major recording contract! But they would be opera stars who would know the difference anyway! Just think of the better world it would be today!

 

[EDDE]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

in 1959 you could metal detect GETTYSBURG.......oh,and invest in jonson and jonson youll alway need toliet paper,soap,and shampoo! oh wait thats the same as present day also

 

[Michigan Badger]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

in 1959 you could metal detect GETTYSBURG.......oh,and invest in jonson and jonson youll alway need toliet paper,soap,and shampoo! oh wait thats the same as present day also

Ah at last! dekalb is on the right track.

What I meant was, lets assume you are living in 1959 and you're at least 15 years old.

Now Gettysburg...there's a tasty little treat! Can you imagine being able to hunt ground zero of Gettysburg? ! Back when the artifacts could even be found by eyeballing after a hard rain.

I'm a shipwreck lover myself. Back in 1959 I could have done the scuba thing on any wreck most anywhere with very little trouble.

Even here in the Great Lakes goodies were for the taking. I own some shipwreck items that were brought up before 1975. If they catch you taking a board from a Great Lakes shipwreck today they'll cut your guts out with a rock!

 

[EDDE]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

those timber barges that sank were worth a pretty coin if they were loaded with say american chestnut before the blight that killed them off..the barns around here my be worth a penny if you can find the right one...

 

[Burdie]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

Well first I would be at the airport to stop Buddy Holly from getting on the plane. I would of bought three of the first Barbie dolls produced. Invested $5.00 in Xerox. I would say yes to Mary Ann Mobley.
Metal detecting in Alaska since it became a state. I would detect every high school football concession stand in the U.S. Burdie

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

Interesting choice of years. That's when I was born. Detector choice (for a 15 year old) would be limited for sure. WWII or Korean War surplus mine-sweepers (with 12 pounds of batteries). The old Beat Frequency Oscillators could be built with schematics from Raytheon, but you'd have to be a well paper-routed kid to have the scratch for even the components unless Dad was loaded.

I'd check the old grounds where the circus set-up every summer. The old Cream Dove dairy behind my house (the house was built in 1820!) that was in place back when the Chenango Canal connected to the Erie. My back yard ~ which was 20 ft x 20 ft and wouldn't take long. All of these spots have since been filled with topsoil anyd graded. And all within walking distance for a 15 year old (kids WERE NOT chauffeured around in 1959!)

 

[Michigan Badger]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

I picked 1959 because that's the year Ken White, Sr. made his first coin/relic metal detector.

I own a BFO unit that's homebrew 1958. It has a paper inside the case that tells the year the hobbyist made it.

Knowing what I do now, if I were to go back to 1959, I'd probably start with a simple screen and shovel. I'd go to our large and rich nearby public beach and screen the sand by all the swings, slides, merry-go-rounds, and the concession stand entrance. I'd soon have enough extra money to either buy one of Ken's units or get somebody to build me a homebrew unit.

I can't believe no one thought of doing this in 1959! I lived by the beach and nothing happened there that I didn't know about. I was 11 years old in 1959 and I never saw anyone hunting anything at that large beach until about 1967. And that beach was used heavily by very rich people!

As soon as I got the detector, I'd head for the main beach where people lay out on towels. I'd then hit the public parks. Next would be all those awesome old houses that were still standing in our city back in 1959.

I'd have no worry of trouble because in 1959 even a kid could go most anywhere in most cities and have no fear of hurt.

 

[stoney56]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

Well, for a 50-50 split, I'd show Mel Fisher where the Atocha is. Of course it might change the time line a bit. Then I'd have the money to sponsor Ken White, Charles Garrett, and maybe Bill Gates. The rest I'd blow on gold prospecting and travel the world.

 

[EDDE]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

i think the idea of having a ww2 era detector and dong that is what makes it twice as rewarding .its such a little sacrifice also a cooler full of coke in glass bottles on ice.....drinks for all my freinds..

 

[hollowpointred]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

I picked 1959 because that's the year Ken White, Sr. made his first coin/relic metal detector.

I own a BFO unit that's homebrew 1958. It has a paper inside the case that tells the year the hobbyist made it.

Knowing what I do now, if I were to go back to 1959, I'd probably start with a simple screen and shovel. I'd go to our large and rich nearby public beach and screen the sand by all the swings, slides, merry-go-rounds, and the concession stand entrance. I'd soon have enough extra money to either buy one of Ken's units or get somebody to build me a homebrew unit.

I can't believe no one thought of doing this in 1959! I lived by the beach and nothing happened there that I didn't know about. I was 11 years old in 1959 and I never saw anyone hunting anything at that large beach until about 1967. And that beach was used heavily by very rich people!

As soon as I got the detector, I'd head for the main beach where people lay out on towels. I'd then hit the public parks. Next would be all those awesome old houses that were still standing in our city back in 1959.

I'd have no worry of trouble because in 1959 even a kid could go most anywhere in most cities and have no fear of hurt.

i think in the days before metal detectors became popular people just didnt realise how much money is in the ground.no one even thought to screen sift the sand because it just didnt cross anyones mind. everyone would have thought you were wasting your time. (some people today think we are wasting our time!).i think i would have run into you guys at gettysburgh,antietum and valley forge! the available spots to hunt back then must have been mind boggling!

 

[ZumbroKid]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

Nice to dream, but the reality is it is all still out there. I'm done picking over this area, off to the next mother load! The screen sifter is still the way to go. Does not miss a thing. Unless you do not dig deep enough or you get dirt in your eye ball!

 

[Michigan Badger]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

Speaking of sifting sand, any of you guys remember the days when many were building those beach sifter machines? These were pushed or dragged and they'd sifted down to about 3 or 4 inches deep.

Back in the early 80's I remember several articles written about them but all of a sudden I heard nothing more.

Know anything about these?

 

[silverswede]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

Really bring back the memories on a cold spring day. I'd have to fudge just a bit like up to 62' and the detector a friend and I teamed up to buy was a Whites Goldmaster BFO. Weighed about 5 pounds and come with a 3" "wooden" coil. All the dimes and quarters of course were silver, but then so were the ones in our pockets. No such thing as a gone over area we were the first. first in the park, first in the fairgrounds, and most of all first to take a ribbing from all our friends. Then we hit it big. We knew of several old homesteads and our detecting activity inside a rotted out log cabin located a small attic area that held cache of real goodies. Reloading supplies, bullet molds, old surveying equipment, drafting tools, bottles, whiskey jugs. All were soon sold to finance many future hunts and started a hobby I've enjoyed ever since. Thanks for stirring the memory Michigan Badger and for the welcome as a Newbie.]

 

[bigbcbear]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

screen mesh and a shovel and hit all the beaches. Yee hah

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

I would be chasing Little Bill Gates around the schoolyard and catch him!!! :P

 

[bakergeol]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

Well since I started detecting in the early 60's going back a few years would have not made a difference. The areas I would have detected in 1959 would have still have been virgin a few years later in the early 60's. At 11 years old I probably could not ride my bike with my BFO to Gettysburg.
Regarding beaches well my experience was with freshwater beaches in the Mid-West. Actually the beaches were the first areas I headed to with my BFO in the early 60's. I stopped visiting them after my first trip to a virgin park. Simply no comparison to the coin carpets in the parks, fairgrounds and schools.
So I do not need to back to that time era as I have great memories of that era. If we could all go back it would not be the same. The thrill was being a pioneer and waving your detector over premo sites where no one has gone before. Now if I could bring back a modern VLF- that's a different story.

George

 

[Michigan Badger]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

Now if I could bring back a modern VLF- that's a different story.

George

I hear ya George. I didn't start until the late 60's and I used a Coinmaster IV TR machine. By the late 60's most places had been hit hard already. But, I still averaged a keeper about every 2 minutes in our local parks. Granted most of these were only wheat cents but they were still better than pulltabs.

I plan to return to some of those old parks this summer. I'll be using a detector that has nearly 3 times the depth of those I used up to the early 80's. And today's discrimination via meters and settings is mega superior.

HH

Badger

 

[suwannee pirate]

Re: Imagine You're Back In The Year 1959

I didn't start till '63 with my dad and an old BIG green wwII mine sweeper ,he sweept and I dug. In 66 we got a ray-scope and we were cookin. Hit a lot of old amusment parks that had been open in the 1800rds that had grown into forests . I ought to go back with the new equipment.At that time we owned 1000 acres in Cannan Vally WVa.,that was used as a training site for troops going to europe for the war. We used to go camping there with the metal detector and fishing gear .Caught fish, detected up some bulletts and coins and zippos,ate fresh smallmouth out of the Blackwater river that ran through the bottom land. Good times ,Thanks for bringing back the memories, I had a great dad....Bob