I HAVE AUTHORED NUMEROUS ARTICLES ABOUT COLLECTING AND OUR HOBBY FOR THE SCARBOROUGH GEM AND MINERAL CLUB. A TORONTO ONT. CLUB. I THINK IT'S WORTH A LOOK FOR THE AVERAGE ROCKHOUND AS MANY OF THESE ARTICLES ARE VERY RELEVENT TO COLLECTING SAFETY, TOOLS AND SHOWS. I WOULD LIKE TO GET SOME FEEDBACK, AT TIMES I FEEL I'M WRITING FOR MYSELF AND NO ONE ELSE IS INTERESTED IN WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN. I'M SURE OTHER AUTHORS HAVE HAD THAT FEELING AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER. I AM JUST ONE OF THE CONTRIBUTERS, AND WOULD APPRECIATE ANY HELPFULL COMMENTS THAT MIGHT IMPROVE OUR SITE. I'M ADDING ONE OF MY ARTICLES, THIS JUST MIGHT BE OF INTEREST,TO A COLLECTOR THAT NEEDS TO GET HIS WOMAN ON HIS SIDE, OR RISK HAVING AN UNHAPPY NIGHT OR TWO.


THIS COLLECTORS WIFE by Dick Stata

I just want to talk about how lucky I am in finding a jewel of a person to live with and take a personal interest in an unusual hobby.
When Donna and I got married in 1965, I don’t think the poor girl ever dreamed she would be traveling North America in the pursuit of my obsession with crystals and cutting materials. When she first discovered I had this rock disease, away back in 1968 she decided then, to make herself interested in my hobby, or she just might be spending to many weekends alone. I cut stones she liked Jewelry, I joined a mineral club, she ended up being president, she even beat me in an election runoff for the job. While she was not a great physical collector, she has a good eye for finding crystals and while just walking around she often ended up with more Herkimers and Quartz crystals than I did and I worked myself half to death. She always tells everybody I only take her along to carry the rocks out, thats not entirely true, she gets to make lunch also. Donna has a great eye for beautiful and aesthetic stones, so she also started making Necklace’s, Earrings and Bracelets. She always amazes me that she has absorbed so much knowledge about rocks just by reading. Few people know she has a wonderful collection of Malachite and Azurite, there will come a day when I will get her to display her collection at the show.
We still travel to far off locations taking our trailer and my best friend, who happens to be my wife Donna. She still collects the odd time if there is no digging involved, but mostly, she is Chief Cook and Trailer Boss. I must say she has been a Saint for putting up with all the rocks laying around the house and yard. Donna is persistent, there are not many wives that would willingly have spent over 35 anniversaries, minding rocks at the Bancroft Gemboree and still be willing to let me go collecting on weekends, just so I can have more rocks piled in the basement and yard. I have dragged that lovely woman from coast to coast passing up all kinds of attractions just to make it to a collecting site on time. When I look back over our lives together, without her, I probably would never would have had this hobby, and with any other woman, I probably would have been between a rock and a hard place.
What I’m really trying to say is, to make that collecting experience really enjoyable, either take your wife with you, or at least get her on your side. It’s just a hobby, a happy home life is more important, while a house full of rocks might be desirable, they don’t do much to warm a bed at night, or put a meal on the table. Donna is like a magnificent tumbler to me, one that smoothes all my rough spots and brings a shine into what otherwise would be a dull existence. I must say Donna is the brightest gem I have ever collected, one of a kind and I love her to pieces.

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