Prober
Bronze Member
Good Karma & Lost opportunity
Hey gang,
Just got back from my trip to New York state last night. I had planned to stay longer but the pickings were so slim I decided to cut it short. My original plan was to find a site that would yield some old stuff but that didn't pan out. The bank of the Erie Canal now contains railroad tracks and the large fill stones which hold the tracks! Guess my expectations were too high. The other places I found were historical and "off limits", CRAP!
At least I had a nice visit.
The first day I visited my best buddy from high school and his brother in law who was also in our class. While I was talking about metal detecting my friend left the room and returned with two 14K rings, "Here, take these, I don't want them." One of the rings was his wedding band and the other was a ring his ex gave him...he dislikes her so much he doesn't want anything around to remind him of her. I told him to give them to one of his kids but he wouldn't think of it. "Either you take them or I throw them away!" So, being as I kinda like gold, I took them.
After visiting with my friends it got to be around 5 p.m. so I headed out. Found a Burger King and looked at my hand drawn maps of local schools.
The first school I visited turned out to have small stones instead of the preferred wood chips; findings were slim. Now for the Good Karma part. A little skinny old lady came up to me and asked, "Have you seen a tan car?" There were no other cars near the school when I arrived...cars were arriving filled with baseball players but she hadn't arrived with them. "I came here to vote," she told me. Unbeknownst to her, the voting was the next day. I told her I hadn't seen her car and asked her where she had parked it. "By the high school," she answered. The high school was across the street so I gave her directions and she was on her way. Later I glanced up and she was talking to a group of ball players at the other end of the parking lot. I watched as she wandered away towards the school.
Finishing up on the "stone lot" I drove over to the high school and through the alley in back...no car. I saw the old lady as I left the school, she was walking toward the school in the alleyway next to the football field. "She's probably just a bit confused," I thought to myself as I drove away. Actually my thoughts were more around the lines of, "She's probably a nut case." I drove around the block and decided to go back and take a picture of the school as my sister and I had both attended when we were kids.
Lo and behold, a tan car!
I drove around the back of the school and the lady was shuffling along looking tired and bewildered. Rolling the window down I informed her, "Your car is around the other side of the school!" "Oh, thank you so much, I'm so tired!" "Come on, get in, I'll drive you there." I had no idea how steep and messed up the old, broken up, overgrown driveway was! What had possessed her to drive up it in the first place was beyond me. It was a single lane driveway and her car was facing mine so I turned it around...she was afraid to turn it around as the hill was too steep and I really didn't relish backing my car down the ramshakled driveway. When I returned to her she was holding out a 10 dollar bill. I convinced her to put it away and helped her into her car. "Drive carefully, the driveway isn't in the best of shape." She gave me God's blessings and I watched her drive away. She turned onto the road and drove up the road...I hope she knew where she was going!
My handdrawn map guided me to the next playground...ah! Wood chips! I just may have been the first to detect that school. Besides plenty of clad I found a Guardian Angel token and an Antique Car token. I'd been there about 1/2 hour when a black and white pulled into the school lot. I pretended not to notice. He parked for a few seconds behind my car (to check my plate?) then he drove back out and parked at the other end of the school...presumably watching me. He stayed there for about 1/2 hour before leaving. He may have been just enjoying a coffee and a donut, but I doubt it. Then two little girls showed up and began following me around. OK, now I'm getting uncomfortable. I cut the hunt short as it was getting towards dark anyway. I told the girls, "Don't be talking to strangers." I don't know if they realized that I was a stranger and they shouldn't have been talking to me.
The next day I called Swizzle. Jason (Swizzle) and I had talked on TN several times and he lived close to where I was visiting. He couldn't detect that day so we decided on the next day. I checked out a few places and couldn't find access to anywhere OLD. Tired of driving around and not finding anything I turned again to my maps and visited playgrounds. Not much at any of them. Had to leave one when a construction guy told me they were spraying the wood structures, didn't really matter much as it was stones and there wasn't much there.
Met Swizzle the next morning and he, I and his 4 year old, headed for Saratoga. We checked out several parks but again, they were OFF LiMITs! The schools weren't all that great either. Jason did find a silver ring with a pink stone. He called me over and pointed, "Look at that," There, outlined in the ground was the shape of a ring topped by a stone. He dug it up and examined it...sterling. Too bad neither of us thought to take a picture of it as it lay in the ground. The ring kind of made us even as shortly before that I did a little dance for the sterling St. Christopher medal that I found by the swings.
Here's Swizzle.
Other notable finds:
And the rest of the stuff (less around 114 pennies).
So, where was the lost opportunity? The High School. That particular school has been around a LONG time, my mother went there when she was in school in the 1930's (she was in class with Kirk Douglas's sister Mary). He was a couple years ahead of Mom and Mary. The school was there years before she attended. If I had just had my brain in gear after the old woman left I could have covered that whole area with my detector...WHO KNOWS WHAT I MISSED! I didn't think about it until I got in bed last night...WHAT A NIMNIL!
I'm back home and ready to hit the schools around here where the pickings are lots better! Happy hunting all.
Hey gang,
Just got back from my trip to New York state last night. I had planned to stay longer but the pickings were so slim I decided to cut it short. My original plan was to find a site that would yield some old stuff but that didn't pan out. The bank of the Erie Canal now contains railroad tracks and the large fill stones which hold the tracks! Guess my expectations were too high. The other places I found were historical and "off limits", CRAP!
At least I had a nice visit. The first day I visited my best buddy from high school and his brother in law who was also in our class. While I was talking about metal detecting my friend left the room and returned with two 14K rings, "Here, take these, I don't want them." One of the rings was his wedding band and the other was a ring his ex gave him...he dislikes her so much he doesn't want anything around to remind him of her. I told him to give them to one of his kids but he wouldn't think of it. "Either you take them or I throw them away!" So, being as I kinda like gold, I took them.
After visiting with my friends it got to be around 5 p.m. so I headed out. Found a Burger King and looked at my hand drawn maps of local schools.
The first school I visited turned out to have small stones instead of the preferred wood chips; findings were slim. Now for the Good Karma part. A little skinny old lady came up to me and asked, "Have you seen a tan car?" There were no other cars near the school when I arrived...cars were arriving filled with baseball players but she hadn't arrived with them. "I came here to vote," she told me. Unbeknownst to her, the voting was the next day. I told her I hadn't seen her car and asked her where she had parked it. "By the high school," she answered. The high school was across the street so I gave her directions and she was on her way. Later I glanced up and she was talking to a group of ball players at the other end of the parking lot. I watched as she wandered away towards the school.
Finishing up on the "stone lot" I drove over to the high school and through the alley in back...no car. I saw the old lady as I left the school, she was walking toward the school in the alleyway next to the football field. "She's probably just a bit confused," I thought to myself as I drove away. Actually my thoughts were more around the lines of, "She's probably a nut case." I drove around the block and decided to go back and take a picture of the school as my sister and I had both attended when we were kids.
Lo and behold, a tan car!
I drove around the back of the school and the lady was shuffling along looking tired and bewildered. Rolling the window down I informed her, "Your car is around the other side of the school!" "Oh, thank you so much, I'm so tired!" "Come on, get in, I'll drive you there." I had no idea how steep and messed up the old, broken up, overgrown driveway was! What had possessed her to drive up it in the first place was beyond me. It was a single lane driveway and her car was facing mine so I turned it around...she was afraid to turn it around as the hill was too steep and I really didn't relish backing my car down the ramshakled driveway. When I returned to her she was holding out a 10 dollar bill. I convinced her to put it away and helped her into her car. "Drive carefully, the driveway isn't in the best of shape." She gave me God's blessings and I watched her drive away. She turned onto the road and drove up the road...I hope she knew where she was going!
My handdrawn map guided me to the next playground...ah! Wood chips! I just may have been the first to detect that school. Besides plenty of clad I found a Guardian Angel token and an Antique Car token. I'd been there about 1/2 hour when a black and white pulled into the school lot. I pretended not to notice. He parked for a few seconds behind my car (to check my plate?) then he drove back out and parked at the other end of the school...presumably watching me. He stayed there for about 1/2 hour before leaving. He may have been just enjoying a coffee and a donut, but I doubt it. Then two little girls showed up and began following me around. OK, now I'm getting uncomfortable. I cut the hunt short as it was getting towards dark anyway. I told the girls, "Don't be talking to strangers." I don't know if they realized that I was a stranger and they shouldn't have been talking to me.
The next day I called Swizzle. Jason (Swizzle) and I had talked on TN several times and he lived close to where I was visiting. He couldn't detect that day so we decided on the next day. I checked out a few places and couldn't find access to anywhere OLD. Tired of driving around and not finding anything I turned again to my maps and visited playgrounds. Not much at any of them. Had to leave one when a construction guy told me they were spraying the wood structures, didn't really matter much as it was stones and there wasn't much there.
Met Swizzle the next morning and he, I and his 4 year old, headed for Saratoga. We checked out several parks but again, they were OFF LiMITs! The schools weren't all that great either. Jason did find a silver ring with a pink stone. He called me over and pointed, "Look at that," There, outlined in the ground was the shape of a ring topped by a stone. He dug it up and examined it...sterling. Too bad neither of us thought to take a picture of it as it lay in the ground. The ring kind of made us even as shortly before that I did a little dance for the sterling St. Christopher medal that I found by the swings.
Here's Swizzle.
Other notable finds:
And the rest of the stuff (less around 114 pennies).
So, where was the lost opportunity? The High School. That particular school has been around a LONG time, my mother went there when she was in school in the 1930's (she was in class with Kirk Douglas's sister Mary). He was a couple years ahead of Mom and Mary. The school was there years before she attended. If I had just had my brain in gear after the old woman left I could have covered that whole area with my detector...WHO KNOWS WHAT I MISSED! I didn't think about it until I got in bed last night...WHAT A NIMNIL!
I'm back home and ready to hit the schools around here where the pickings are lots better! Happy hunting all.
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Yes I Totally Agree a forum member lives just around the corner from me got permission to hunt an old farm here in shrewsbury thats great Because I have recently with in 2 days asked the town parks mgr can I Metal detect Yes she awnsered I was Think Great 
