which collected item brings back memories?

Recent correspondence brought to my mind that there is such a wide variation in the quality of minerals that are appreciated by contributors to Mindat. Your own history sets the standard for what you regard collectable and memorable. I was particularly taken aback when a contributor indicated that having picked up the following specimen I should have returned it to where I had found it and left it there.




My origins were that I lived in an area of London clay so crystals simply did not occur. In fact no crystals were evident for hundreds of miles around. I had got interested in collecting crystals because I had previously made jewellery from pebbles off the beach.

I did some research and decided to make a collecting trip to Devon and Cornwall. As it was to be a 1000 mile round trip it had to be well planned. My first two calls were in Devon. At the first I was refused permission, despite having it in writing previously. Then I could not find the next destination. Into Cornwall and the first destination was Cligga head.

Cligga was approached through an old airfield from the war which was now used by gliders. Loads of spoil lay in many heaps lining the pathways. I met up with a number of people and the buzz was the recent discovery of natural copper at the site.I was rather surprised by the large number collecting there and spent as much time talking as collecting.

In the end I went off by myself and on a hillside discovered this specimen. In the centre was a complete Quartz crystal (now missing) and it had a number of broken crystals and other characteristics that were worth investigating. This was my very first sight of a crystal in real life, and with so many other interesting aspects it kept me interested in minerals whereas a failure may have left me with another interest. I collected and was given other specimens on the journey but it was this one that was first and had the most interest.

I carried on collecting and got my children interested. With their better eyes they came to collect better specimens than I had at the time. As a direct result two of them got scientific doctorates. One son is a senior university lecturer in earth sciences and other big words. One daughter travels the world representing the government at protectorates looking after ecology and wildlife.

This specimen therefore set in train a number of events of great importance even though some person thinks I should have thrown it away. Other Mindat contributors must have similar items of variable quality that set them on their way with the interest. The stories will be interesting to hear.

Malcolm Chapman
England



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2009 07:33PM by Rock Currier.

Malcom,
Why don't you upload the picture to Mindat? When that is done, Ill show you how to place it in one of these fields in such a way as you can put a caption directly under and attached to the image and how to control the size of the image.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Rock,

downloaded to mindat

Malcolm Chapman
England

OK, now go and look at your original post at the top of this thread and use the edit button to look at the change of code I used to modify the size of the image and insert the caption. You can change the image by changing the image number which is currently 260491 and also change the caption simply by deleting or editing anything I put between the brackets. You can also change the size of the image by changing the pixel count from 850 to six hundred which was the size of your original image. The basic code string is inserted automatically in a post like this one by clicking on the little red tourmaline icon next to the yellow smiley face button at the right end of the tool bar just above the text in the edit window.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2009 07:40PM by Rock Currier.

Hi Malcolm,

My experience hasn't launched any careers (yet)...

I first became interested in minerals when a distant relative sent me a cardboard box with a number of thumbnail size specims that were glued to the inside with a simple caption below indiccating the mineral type.

I was about 9 and this was long before the internet. I didn't have the discipline to visit a library and dig through old card catalogs and dusty books, and my attention was eventually diverted to other things.

Years later when I moved to my current town, I visited a local jewler who also had a mineral section, and that long buried interest surfaced.

In terms of what I view as collectable...

Well, that carboard collection was about as low as you can get on the quality scale, but all of the specimens looked like something I could dig up myself and were "real". I prefer minerals that look like they came from the ground. That sounds silly, but some of the minerals I see for sale and on Mindat look like they were fabricated. I'm sure they're all genuine, they just don't have that "earthy" feel to me.

Dave

Those little variety boxes have a lot to answer for. Over the years I seen many and have always been drawn to them, particularly as there is nothing around here that matches them.

Children around here do now at least get some education about crystals. I went to a Christmas fair at a local school with the usual things. I also took a box of small crystals from Arkansas left over from my stock at the shop I had. They were mostly single crystals about 3cm long. I sold the lot (about 50) and the children aged around 10 went away like they had found gold.

It makes you wonder how many if any will be inspired to go deeper into the subject.

Malcolm Chapman
England