The Story of a Rock Collection

Hello. I am someone’s rock collection. And this is my story of how I came into being and what happened to me.

I entered this world by the hand of a child picking up some pretty stones out of the creek they were playing in. The child added to his pile of pretty stones from the drive way, the sandbox and any where the family went. We were taken out and shown to all the aunts, uncles, grandparents and any other person that he could get to look at his rock collection.

He received the usual gifts of books and boxed minerals as time went by. But unlike most children whose interest come and go with different hobbies, his stayed with the pretty stones. Some times more and some times less. As the years passed and he grow a pace the family begin to go to dig for rocks, to museums to see the great collections, to learn how to cut a cabochon out of some of the rocks they had found. In the process they grow closer as a family with many shared memories. And in the process I grow too. The pretty river rocks were replaced with agates, petrified wood, quartz and many other interesting minerals. I was treasured, protected and cared for. Dust did not hide my beauty. Everything had a label and a place. The boxes of cutting material are clearly identified as to where they came from and when they had been collected.

Times passes and the boy has become a man. He has married and started a family of his own. He shares his love for the pretty rocks with his wife and children. I again have a large number of pretty stones out of the creek gracing my shelves. That is fine with me because I am loved and cared for. Now he is the teacher taking his wife and children to the places he collected, teaching them how to cut stones. They are members of the local rock club and take part it all of its activities

The children have moved out on their own and started families. So it is the collector and his wife who still share the hobby and the time together still making memories. While he is still the driving force behind their hobby it is not a passion with his wife.

As they age into that part of life where health is not as good as it was. Where travel and digging is much much harder work than before. Where there are grandchildren to see to and other matters take the attention that was once graced on my love specimens. I am not dusted as often, my labels get blown off the shelf and not put back where they should be. The little one play with me and use me for obstacles in the race tracks. I am broken, put up with out care. And then one day the man is taken away in an ambulance never to return to his loved home. It is a time of sorrow and tears. It is time for a change in the life style of the wife who has been left alone.

Now you can write any of several ending to this story. So take your choice and see what happens to me.

As the cleaning is done in preparation for her move to a smaller home the rocks that have cluttered the house for so many years are put on the corner with the trash. At least she does not have to move all that heavy stuff…..

The local club is called to come get me and share or sell me to the members. I may find a good home in someone’s collection or end in the trash.

It is realized that there is some value in me so a dealer in minerals is called in to value and maybe purchase me. Alas much of my value has been lost with the labels and locations. A broken crystal, no label, no location, and much dust reduce the value that I have had in the past. A price is agreed to and I am carted off to be cleaned, identified and sold off to someone who it is hoped will treasure me as much as my original owner did.

She calls the children and grandchildren together and tells them to take what they most treasure with the memories that they hold dear of their father and the good times they shared. I am disbursed to loving and caring home to start again.

Now my question to you is what will happen to your collection when you leave this world?

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