Gold and Friendship

[fancythomas]

First time poster here, long time reader. Thanks to all (hosts and moderators especially) for making treasurenet.com the virtual trove of treasure that it is.

I am a self taught junior prospector. A rookie you might say. But I can find gold. I have a real knack for it.
I wanted to share this story: Yesterday I went with a friend (20 yrs) who has shown some interest in prospecting for some time. He has never seen raw gold before and couldnt pan a marble out of beach sand, but has claimed a real interest in wanting to try and to learn. Well, I was working on a job and I stopped by to see him. Long story short we took a walk to retrieve my deerstand that i had let him borrow. When I saw that it was beside a dried out flood stream, i suggested that we pan some gravel. two pans, five minutes later, he had a vial of gold with beautiful flecks of nice sized coarse gold, pretty as you ever saw. Instead of being excited about "our find", he basically pocketed the gold and I got the feeling I wasnt welcome anymore. It was a weird feeling walking out of the woods. On that walk I realized how lucky I was that for two small flakes I learned how shallow the friendship really was. He acted as if I stumbled on some treasure that he had long known about. It was just weird. I couldnt help but think that this feeling was an old story of mankind. Two men walk into some lost cavern and find some gold, one man comes out. It was just weird. I cant really explain it. But gold does funny things to people. Or maybe Im the weirdo. I dont know. Thanks for letting me ramble. sorry if its the wrong forum.

 

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[Assembler]

Thanks for sharing the story fancythomas. Gold can have an effect on some people. Welcome to the forum.

 

[delnorter]

Hi fancythomas, welcome to participating on the forum.

You might give your friend a little more time to show his true friendship, one way or the other, but..... gold fever is a real condition affecting folks in many ways. Keep having fun with your prospecting and tell us of your adventure.

Mike

 

[mytimetoshine]

Loaned him a deerstand and showed him gold in his own backyard. Can you be my friend? Ha, seriously, what a jerk. People suck

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[et1955]

First time poster here, long time reader. Thanks to all (hosts and moderators especially) for making treasurenet.com the virtual trove of treasure that it is.

I am a self taught junior prospector. A rookie you might say. But I can find gold. I have a real knack for it.
I wanted to share this story: Yesterday I went with a friend (20 yrs) who has shown some interest in prospecting for some time. He has never seen raw gold before and couldnt pan a marble out of beach sand, but has claimed a real interest in wanting to try and to learn. Well, I was working on a job and I stopped by to see him. Long story short we took a walk to retrieve my deerstand that i had let him borrow. When I saw that it was beside a dried out flood stream, i suggested that we pan some gravel. two pans, five minutes later, he had a vial of gold with beautiful flecks of nice sized coarse gold, pretty as you ever saw. Instead of being excited about "our find", he basically pocketed the gold and I got the feeling I wasnt welcome anymore. It was a weird feeling walking out of the woods. On that walk I realized how lucky I was that for two small flakes I learned how shallow the friendship really was. He acted as if I stumbled on some treasure that he had long known about. It was just weird. I couldnt help but think that this feeling was an old story of mankind. Two men walk into some lost cavern and find some gold, one man comes out. It was just weird. I cant really explain it. But gold does funny things to people. Or maybe Im the weirdo. I dont know. Thanks for letting me ramble. sorry if its the wrong forum.

Welcome to the club, I have lost several friends to gold fever over the years. Let him go and move on. Keep on digging and don't give up on your quest for the gold.

 

[winners58]

two small flakes, your first post and you tell a tall tale, then it gets weird,
it's you, sounds like you are just overthinking things.

 

[Golden_Crab]

First time poster here, long time reader. Thanks to all (hosts and moderators especially) for making treasurenet.com the virtual trove of treasure that it is.

I am a self taught junior prospector. A rookie you might say. But I can find gold. I have a real knack for it.
I wanted to share this story: Yesterday I went with a friend (20 yrs) who has shown some interest in prospecting for some time. He has never seen raw gold before and couldnt pan a marble out of beach sand, but has claimed a real interest in wanting to try and to learn. Well, I was working on a job and I stopped by to see him. Long story short we took a walk to retrieve my deerstand that i had let him borrow. When I saw that it was beside a dried out flood stream, i suggested that we pan some gravel. two pans, five minutes later, he had a vial of gold with beautiful flecks of nice sized coarse gold, pretty as you ever saw. Instead of being excited about "our find", he basically pocketed the gold and I got the feeling I wasnt welcome anymore. It was a weird feeling walking out of the woods. On that walk I realized how lucky I was that for two small flakes I learned how shallow the friendship really was. He acted as if I stumbled on some treasure that he had long known about. It was just weird. I couldnt help but think that this feeling was an old story of mankind. Two men walk into some lost cavern and find some gold, one man comes out. It was just weird. I cant really explain it. But gold does funny things to people. Or maybe Im the weirdo. I dont know. Thanks for letting me ramble. sorry if its the wrong forum.

Gold, much like wine, brings out the true intentions of a person. Let him kick rocks by himself.

 

[Goldwasher]

man your the one who finds gold all the time...and your not friends now cause he kept a couple flakes...

If its gonna be an issue he doesn't have to be a prospecting friend..I mean you've known him twenty years and this is making you question your friendship?

Just don't prospect with him or considering you've known him for so long maybe you should just tell him how it made you feel.

own your feelings...use your words

 

[Tommybuckets]

He may come around. He should be patting you on the back and asking when you can come back by to do it again. Sometimes we create monsters unintentionally. I took a friend detecting and he found some nice coins and jewelry on one of my favorite spots. Next thing I know he's got a machine and is getting his friend into it. They invited me on one hunt and I got a few large cents and Indians but they were coming up dry. Since then they have not invited me on a hunt even though I have dropped lots of hints. Its a shame that something that initially brought us together drove us apart. I have hundreds of acres all around his house to hunt but stopped calling him now since neither of us reach out.
An old friend of mine has what he calls the $20 dollar test. You have that friend that bugs you for favors, say they want to borrow $20. You loan them the money and then they duck you and don't get back to you. Well for $20 you learned they were not a great friend and unless they approach you to pay you back you don't have to deal with them anymore.

 

[fancythomas]

To be very clear, I did not suggest that we are not friends anymore. I was just voicing an observation. Sometimes in golf, you might "give someone a short putt". Sometimes the sportmanship is not reciprocated. You make a note to yourself and move on.

As far as first posts and tall tales, that was not a fair comment at all. Note to self....

Thanks again guys for all your input on these thousands of threads, I have enjoyed reading for years. Back to my cave.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Yup, sounds like your friend didn't really care about the few flakes in the vial, and probably just enjoyed the walk/ talk. You though, have gold fever
Was the gold his to keep? Or is it your gold?
I have a friend who thinks all of the gold in the area belongs to him, even the gold on my property, gold fever makes you think things are going on, when it's actually just you wanting all of Gold Gold Goooold

 

[crumbaker]

I think its situations like these that can sometimes show the true colors of people. I absolutely believe your story. I'm guessing this was on his land? He probably thinks his tiny pieces of gold is going to lead to millions. Good people in this situation would be happy and appreciative. Not enough good people in this world.

Sort of like some relationships I've had. You date a girl for a year or more, things start to get serious, then a whole new person you've never met shows up(same girl) once she gets comfortable.

 

[Goldwasher]

FT the hazing program here may seem rough...but, man once your through it the chicks are all over you.

just hang in there

 

[fancythomas]

Goldwasher, I appreciate the comment. I have built a few flintlock rifles and the old gaurd of that discipline could hear my tin horn coming as well. I dont take these comments too hard, let it wash down the sluice and its all good.
My friend and I are good, we always will be. I suggested that he use the gold to practice panning, and encouraged him to take his young son to the flood stream. Im sure he will and that will be the real treasure.

Now here is a story I liked, and I hope you all do too:
"The Beaver Dam Mine, in Montgomery County, was also a wonder. This was the property of a man named Thomas Fancy, who up to the time of the discovery of gold on it was a thrifty, steady going citizen. When he began picking up $700 worth of gold a day, however which was the amount his diggings yielded for months his sudden riches turned his head. He took to drink, and indulged in all sorts of extravagances. He was a great deer hunter, and it is said that it became his favorite pastime to go hunting with bullets run from pure gold. Old residents of the locality tell of the killing of a buck by a hunter, long after Fancy's death, in the shoulder of which, when this deer was dressed, he found a flattened piece of gold, while in its hip was another, nearly $100 worth of gold in all. It was supposed that these were a pair of Fancy's bullets with which he had wounded the deer some time when he was hunting. Fancy drank himself to death while his property was still yielding a fortune." (nevadeoutbackgems.com)

Now thats gold fever.

 

[Keeneongold]

FT the hazing program here may seem rough...but, man once your through it the chicks are all over you.

just hang in there

HAHAHAHAHAH!

 

[oidium45]

Man, I was digging with total strangers and when one dude found a good spot we all congratulated him and kept digging in our own spot. No reason to blame the gold.

 

[trdking]

I say you go back to that spot and call him on your cell phone. Tell him you just found a half ounce nugget and he should come help right . Seriously some people cannot handle it. Gold silver money treasure. It just gets them all sideways. Give him the benefit of the doubt (20 years and all) and just don't prospect with him anymore.

 

[Laz7777]

anyone ever see the "Treasure of the Sierra Madre"?
kinda what can happen, but not necessarily has to.
I had one guy come all the way out to where I was (5 miles from the road) and hand me a story about his sluice being stolen.
I happened to have a spare old Keene with new carpet for him to use. he also needed a shovel, I had an extra, so guess what...next he busted his pan (dunno how) so guess what happened next?....
I started feeding him, he had a few dollar store groceries, I had a camp with all the trimmings...
went to town to get more groceries, come back...guess who's digging in my hole? with miles of decent ground all around us and he's gotta use my sluice, my shovel and my pan, why not my hole?
long story short, when I gave him my obvious displeasure, he gave me the "It's open land I'll dig where I want to".
"with what gear?", I asked.
he was packed and down the trail in a half hour.

on the flipside, I've met many friends on the river, who I'll happily let dig beside me.
Jimmy from Oregon, Roy and Brad from Oklahoma, Bob from Davis, Mike from Roseville, Ed from all over the place...and any gentleman/lady miner (especially the ladies!).

which reminds me (off on a tangent here)...I want to start my own club...you've all heard of the New 49'ers...I want my club for ladies only..the Nude 49'ers, membership is free upon my approval..well, enough of my hard rock talk....

peace.

 

[trdking]

Loan him your tools,feed him, he digs in your hole, and cops a dude when you confront him? People in their normal state will not behave this way. The gold bug is a weird virus.

 

[Rail Dawg]

Anyone I find gold with we do splits.

Doesn't matter who actually finds it.