Treasure Hunting

Sam, with his metal detector, and me, with my rattling eardrum, went over to the college after dinner last night. The people at the college, or whoever it is, held the annual music festival there this past weekend - and Sam wanted to scan the grounds with his metal detector for any lost change.

I don't know if I've mentioned his metal detector before (probably), but it's one that I bought him a number of years ago in an effort to get him out of the house. It's really made for a kid, but it still works pretty well for him.

So, like last year, we went over to the college - and as it turns out, Sam wasn't the only one with this brilliant idea. When we got there, there was a guy up on the hill who was wearing bulky looking headphones. These headphones were connected to an expensive looking metal detector which he was swinging side to side as he slowly paced back and forth, staring intently down at the ground. I'm pretty sure that this guy was a pro. He never bothered to look up. He just kept inching along in his slow and meticulous pace.

A little further down on the hill, there was a woman in the distance, also with a large metal detector, also scouring the ground. But she wore no headphones, so she must have been an at an intermediate level of treasure hunting. And even though she was some distance away, we could see her look over at us and we could make out a smile.

As she kept her steady pace, walking along the side of the hill, Sam and I walked down to the lower field where we spent our time walking around the perimeters of the tents that were still standing. Over the last couple of years, Sam and I have learned that the best place to look for change is to concentrate around the perimeter of these tents, and look around where the support posts are - and indeed, Sam started to find some change. 

While we were looking, the lady on the hill had made her way a little closer, and she stopped and called over to us. I couldn't hear half of what she saying at first, but it was clear from Sam's responses that she was interested, not only in how we were doing, but also in letting us know how she was doing.

Sam and I walked over and Sam told her something about all of the threads he was finding and how they must have been doing crafts under that tent. I'm not sure she understood the value of this. She replied by telling Sam that her strategy was to search on the hill because "That's where people sit when they get tired. They sit down, they lie back - and they lose all their change!" I don't know how long she had been walking that hill, but so far, this strategy had apparently yielded her the sum of fifty-five cents - which made her pretty happy.

She continued on her way, smiling to herself as she went, and Sam and I went back to the tents, where Sam found more threads and more change.

From last year's visit - which looks pretty much like this year's visit.

After about an hour or so, Sam and I started to head back to the car. We passed the man on top of the hill, still pacing, still looking intently down at the ground. The only thing that had changed was that now, instead of going back and forth across the matted grass, he was going side to side, crisscrossing the same area where he had been walking before. I guess that's how the pros do it.

The woman who had been searching on the hillside, saw us getting ready to leave and she waved to us and walked over to see how Sam had made out. Sam showed her a handful of change and she showed Sam her fifty-five cents and her bag full of dirty bottle caps. Apparently bottle caps are more plentiful than loose change, at least that's the case on that hill, where people sit down to rest.

But what she seemed especially happy about, was that she found an unopened nip bottle of some type of clear alcohol - the label of which was nowhere to be found. She said something to Sam, which I couldn't hear. But I heard Sam respond with his typical, "Nice," which he said to her in that same polite way that he says it to me, when I tell him some interesting fact that he's not interested in.

Sam said he made out pretty well and I figure he must have, because he spent most of the ride home sitting quietly and smiling to himself the entire time.

Back at home, Sam tallied up his haul: a pile of loose threads (to add to his thread collection), 1 fake coin, 1 paperclip, 2 buttons, 2 small magnets (one that says "It", the other that says, "Salmon") and $2.86 in change. No bottle caps, though, and no bottles of alcohol -which was fine with both of us.