I was standing around the old milk house on the Gallia County Farm when I found the old metal detector I had owned years before. I put on the ear phones attached to the detector, turned it on and was surprised to find that it worked. I moved moving the detector back and forth across some dirt around the milk house and heard a beep to indicate that some metal was under the dirt.
I plunged a small trough into the dirt and began digging. Finally, I saw a piece of cloth in the dirt which looked like blue denim. I pulled it out and found a bright silver quarter wrapped inside it. The cloth had protected the quarter and prevented any corrosion.
The quarter had a standing eagle on both sides. I thought the quarter must have been a misprint since the same design was on both sides.
I pulled out another bright, silver quarter and also extracted a silver penny. The date on the penny was 1958. I unraveled the cloth completely and thought I heard something metallic fall to the ground. I thought perhaps it was another quarter but I couldn't find anything on the ground. Finally, I did see a penny lying on the ground. I picked it up and looked at the date. It was in the 1970s.
I was encouraged by my find and again moved the detector over the ground. I heard another beep and once again plunged my trough into the ground. But when I pulled my trough back out it seemed to contain something that looked like foam-rubber rather that soil.
I looked again and realized I had stuck the trough into the red hood of a car which was made of foam rubber. I had made a terrible mistake and obviously damaged the car.
I looked up at the Farmhouse and realized my father was standing up there watching me. He had seen what I had done and had become very upset because I had ruined the car.
I realized the cost to repair the hood of the car would be far greater than the value of anything I would ever find with my metal detector. However I also thought that sometimes one had to make mistakes before succeeding in an endeavor such as that.
I stuck the piece back into the car which I had dug out and hoped there might be some way of repairing it; but I doubted it.
A man who lived here walked up to me and suggested that we go to Southwestern High School to the football field. Some grass banks were there where people sat when they watched football games. We could use the metal detector there.
My sister was here and I invited her to accompany us.
We headed to the football field and when we got there the man told me he and another fellow had already searched over most of the area once. I likewise had searched the area once myself and found some things.
I began sweeping my detector over the ground. At times the circular base of the detector seemed like it was about the size of a quarter. At other times it seemed five or six centimeters in diameter. I continued sweeping the detector over the ground but I couldn't seem to find anything. I tried searching under some trees.
The man said that the best area was right in the middle and it wasn't very good at the ends. He said that even though the area had already been searched a person could still usually find something new. I continued but I simply couldn't seem to find anything here.
Copyright 2004 by luciddreamer2k@gmail.com
