ROBIN WAGNER
Hypercrs@tampabay.rr.com
Next time your cold think about
this..........MONDAY 3/15/99
---
I head out to the local festival grounds
for
third time in four days. The festival
was the
annual Strawberry Festival, in worship
of
that sweet little red berry.( well some
people act like we should worship that
dang
thing!!) I had seen
our town paper running an article about
the
festival ending, and packing up to move
on.
The article was accompanied by some
photos of
carnival rides in the process of being
dismanteled, and a large photo of an
older
fellow in the act of sweeping his metal
detector. So I knew it had been hunted
over
and most of the easy stuff that was lost
and
left to lie on top would be gone. BUT!!!
No
area is ever hunted out, also the
grounds are
almost eight acres of short grass and
loose
sand. I arrived
around
3:45 and had to wait
for the local jr. high school to let
out,
some of the kids walk acrossed the
festival
grounds as a shortcut home. The clouds
have
been building up all day and the
tempurature
had slowly been dropping, the high for
the
day was 68 F and the wind was a constant
10mph with gust up to 20. It's 4:20,
the
kids
have left the field and I start to sweep
the
more dead looking areas of grass,
normally
about 8- 10 thousand people attend this
function, so that leaves alot of dead
grass.
By 5 pm the clouds
are
thick enough to cause
the tempurature to plummet and what
little
bit of sun there was to vanish from the
sky.
I sweep and dig the
occasional
signal,
pick up any pennys buried under loose
grass
and shiver so hard my sides start to
ache. I
just don't want to go home with 14
pennies
and 1 nickel, this field is the most
heavily
used area during festival and I should
be
able to get a nice handfull of coins. I
had
been there sunday, just after the cold
front
( and rain ) had started to move in, and
found almost 80 coins in two hours .(not
all
were pennies!! Some where dimes,
quarters and
nickels) By 5:30 my right hand is
getting
numb ( I'm a right handed guy,sweep and
dig
with right hand), I'm not bothering to
dig
signals unless they sound loud and firm,
but
I do find some relief behind a buiding.
Sheltered from the wind momentaraly, I
dig a
few faint signals pull up my manditory
amount
of pull tabs for that area and pick up a
quarter thats just laying out in plain
sight.
I move out into the wind and continue to
sweep down the field, another penny,
alright
a dime, another penny, another penny,
well
atleast I won't go home empty handed.
By
5:45 it's really getting noticeably
darker,
more windy and really cold, I decide to
make
a quick trip down the other side of the
field
and leave the back end for next time I
come
out. My nose is cold, I really can't
feel my
hand and the only reason I still have
ears is
because my headphones have trapped a
small
amount of heat against them. I'm speed
sweeping just trying to get to the end
of the
field while still watching for change
laying
on top of the ground, if I don't find it
those school kids that walk through
every day
will find it. Out of the corner of my
eye I
spot a penny out in the grass and swerve
to
pick it up. As I bend down to pick it up
my
MD squeals, I ignore it thinking I
brushed my
pinpointer trigger, but wait next to the
penny is a quarter and next to that is
another penny. It seems like some lost
a
handfull here so I sweep over it and get
a
loud signal, two more pennies another
quarter
and a nickel. A faint signal also sounds
but
I'm really cold and decide to leave it
for
another time. I turn into the wind and
see
another penny almost where I'm standing,
I'm
doing well here so I poke around with my
icepick and find a dime. Maybe I had
better
dig that signal, could be a quarter!!
I
pinpoint the faint signal and pop out a
dime
in less than 6 seconds, it was almost on
top!! It should have been louder than it
was,
as I sweep again I get another faint
signal.
Of course I dug that one too!!!
After almost a full minute of poking in
the
dirt I get a solid tap of metal, it's
small
and high pitch sounding, feels like
another
dime!!! So what pops out but a thin
dirt
covered washer, only the fact that I
pick up
the trash I dig up saved me from loosing
a
ring!! I picked up the washer and
brushed the
loose dirt from it ( no sense in putting
junk
metal plus a pound of dirt into my trash
pocket) and was rewarded with a shine. I
brushed harded and decided I had a
keeper,
brushing the dirt off the inside of the
band
I could just make out the word "
sterling "
in the fading light. I grinned ear to
ear!!
My
first silver ring!!!! Heck, my first
none
junk ring!!!! I swept over the area
just for
good measure and spent another 10
minutes
walking down the edge of the field just
to
make it to the corner I had set as a
goal
earlier that afternoon. Inside the car I
carefully examined the ring just to
reassure
myself that it wasn't junk, finally I
have a
real ring I can say " look , I found
this!!!"
The car finally warms up and I go home
giggely, just waiting to show my wife
her
newest ring. A lite brushing under water
and
the shine is great, it fits her finger
rather
nicely. I think she likes it, ( not like
I
can take it back!!) The tempurate is 45
f
and the wind is constant 22mph....you
figure
out the wind chill!! I spent almost two
hours
out in that weather and I can say I was
cold!! It was worth it. END--another picture of the sil
