BuckleBoy
Gold Member
I was thinking about a question posed below in the message boards. So after coming to grips with my raison d'etre, I think I can say a word or two as the new kid on the block here at TreasureNet. Feel free to respond with your ideas or comments!
I've been detecting since I was 12 years old. I had visited a house of one of those old "veterans" who had already been metal detecting for 30 years. I was in awe such items existed, and that there were coins underfoot wherever I walked. Originally I was into the hobby because it was different and interesting. It wasn't so much about finding the old stuff as much as just finding items (at that age, everything is cool!) Since then, I have realized that my reasons for being a detectorist have changed. I'll try to sum them up, in no particular order:
For me, it's about the prospect of one of those rare thrills; the intoxication of a great find. It's about the unusual items that seem to breed and multiply underground. Metal detecting is like Christmas morning every time--and you never know what you'll get (the greatest gift you ever wanted or just another pair of underwear [a.k.a. "pulltab"]). The people (this includes all the priceless friends I've met along the way all the way up to the sacred "digging buddy" and I'll also include the wierd, quirky, scary, deranged people that I've met that live on only in memory and provide me with interesting stories to tell!
Metal detecting is about sorting through old musty books and microfilms. It is about a window into the past as well as a window into others' lives. I once found a gold class ring and tracked down the owner--a man in his late 40's who was working as a butcher about 2 hours drive away from where I was. When I showed him the ring, he broke down in tears. His high school sweetheart and he had been in a fight, and she had left him, and thrown the ring out into their yard. The two had now been happily married for 25 years. I could tell that the returned ring was for him a type of closure that he had not been able to have...a flood of memories that only he could experience and I could only watch. That moment profoundly affected me.
Finally, metal detecting is about awareness. Most of the world walks across interesting and historical items inches beneath their feet every day. We have that awareness and that access to what lies under our feet. We have the awareness of what things were like 50 or 100 or 200 years ago. We have experienced being the first to touch 100 or 200 year old coins since they were lost. Detectorists I've found are an imaginative bunch ("perhaps that old fence row wasn't always there..."). Detectorists are hard workers (sun boiling down. sweat. yellow jackets. angry bulls. snakes. sunburn. (need I say more?). Detectorists are dreamers.
Always keep fresh batteries,
BuckleBoy
I've been detecting since I was 12 years old. I had visited a house of one of those old "veterans" who had already been metal detecting for 30 years. I was in awe such items existed, and that there were coins underfoot wherever I walked. Originally I was into the hobby because it was different and interesting. It wasn't so much about finding the old stuff as much as just finding items (at that age, everything is cool!) Since then, I have realized that my reasons for being a detectorist have changed. I'll try to sum them up, in no particular order:
For me, it's about the prospect of one of those rare thrills; the intoxication of a great find. It's about the unusual items that seem to breed and multiply underground. Metal detecting is like Christmas morning every time--and you never know what you'll get (the greatest gift you ever wanted or just another pair of underwear [a.k.a. "pulltab"]). The people (this includes all the priceless friends I've met along the way all the way up to the sacred "digging buddy" and I'll also include the wierd, quirky, scary, deranged people that I've met that live on only in memory and provide me with interesting stories to tell!
Metal detecting is about sorting through old musty books and microfilms. It is about a window into the past as well as a window into others' lives. I once found a gold class ring and tracked down the owner--a man in his late 40's who was working as a butcher about 2 hours drive away from where I was. When I showed him the ring, he broke down in tears. His high school sweetheart and he had been in a fight, and she had left him, and thrown the ring out into their yard. The two had now been happily married for 25 years. I could tell that the returned ring was for him a type of closure that he had not been able to have...a flood of memories that only he could experience and I could only watch. That moment profoundly affected me.
Finally, metal detecting is about awareness. Most of the world walks across interesting and historical items inches beneath their feet every day. We have that awareness and that access to what lies under our feet. We have the awareness of what things were like 50 or 100 or 200 years ago. We have experienced being the first to touch 100 or 200 year old coins since they were lost. Detectorists I've found are an imaginative bunch ("perhaps that old fence row wasn't always there..."). Detectorists are hard workers (sun boiling down. sweat. yellow jackets. angry bulls. snakes. sunburn. (need I say more?). Detectorists are dreamers.
Always keep fresh batteries,
BuckleBoy
Amazon Forum Fav 👍
Upvote
0
