sad day - rock club closing shop sale

Sorry about the closing. About 11 hour drive for me so I won't be able to attend. If the jewelry findings go unsold let me know and depending what is there I may be interested in them.

I'm trying to imagine how lapidary club poker goes. "I'll call your jasper and raise an agate."

Same for my husband's hobby. It's a dying craft- building (sci fi) models from scratch. Yes, it used to be a thriving community, but the numbers are dwindling away. I believe that in this day and age people are more interested in electronics to pass the time.

This is a shame.. The youth of today would rather spend time on their iPads or buy something that is all ready made (via china etc).. I would like to continue my/this hobby myself.. but our local gem cutters society is locate down town Baltimore.. which we are not willing to drive to or through.
These things we enjoy as older adults the youth of today take for granted.. they are not willing to learn a skill or trade that is slowly becoming lost. My issue is that my hands can no longer hold the items I wish to craft.. thou I have attempted to create my own gigs nothing was working and being self taught.. and getting frustrated.. I simply sold all my equipment. Yet My wife and I do frequent the gem mines (poor mans sluicing through seeded buckets) we do not tour the actual gem mine any more because of all the stooping or straining.
What I do not understand in this post.. if a club as all these members, there isn't one or many that will step up and take on the storage of the equipment or offer his own garage etc for the club house.. Unless the club members just are not willing to share their experiences and teach the youth.. Because after-all it is a trade and many simply do not wish to reveal a few of their own tricks that might "one up" the other artisan. In this case I would contact other clubs around the area.. or donate these items to a local school/collage etc.. Which brings up another point.. many collages have the facilities to store and have your classes within the halls of the community collages..

That sucks. Hope you all can figure something out, but that is the way it goes.


Shotgunner said
Two items of note here. Both of the gentlemen quoted above are correct, and for the same but different reasons, not really related to lapidary stuff.

Two of my other main interests besides messing with rocks are hunting and fishing. Get it? I like being outdoors, and while some things outdoors are more fun than others, i.e., fishing is more fun than cutting firewood, they are all outdoors. The problem was that I couldn't get the older guys to take me along because that was their time away from the wife and kids. A lot of interest in anything outdoors was lost in the '60's, '70's because of that.

In the case Shotgunner relates, someone with a Napoleon complex killed the interest in a kid. Unpardonable.

In my case, I was just stubborn and went hunting, fishing, and messing with rocks on my own. Took a while but finally figured some stuff out. By the time I was in my mid twenties, all the older guys wanted me to go along because they wanted someone to row the boat or drag the dead deer or carry the rocks. Told 'em to stuff it.

Not saying any of you are guilty of the above sins, but it's something that has stuck in my craw for, oh, going on 50 years.

By the jeebus, if any of you know a kid that shows an interest in anything outdoors or science related, give him/her all the encouragement you can. I know I've taken kids fishing 30 years ago when they were 8 or 10, they lost interest in their teens and twenties, but they now are back at it harder than ever. Can't just blame the current generation for their fixation with electronic gizmos because I know people in their 50's who freak out if they get out of cell phone range. (And gps readings? I piss on gps readings from a considerable height. If you can't read a damn map, then stay home.) The interest in all of our outside interests has been killed over the last couple of generations or so. I'm certainly not calling anyone out here, just hoping some folks will step up and help reverse the trend. I fear it's much to late though.

Sorry for the little rant.

Russ

Russ, I can understand most of what you wrote, although I haven't experienced much of the selfish behavior you describe. I think around here, a lot of adults are willing to take kids out with them hunting or fishing.

I don't agree with your view on gps though. I have a teenage daughter who got into geocaching through a friend's dad. We bought her a gps for Christmas a few years ago and we've had a lot of fun exploring areas we would never had found if not for geocaching. Personally, I don't enjoy searching around the woods for a plastic jug full of stuff, but they're usually hidden in some very interesting areas. If a kid can mix electronics and outdoors, what's the harm? Actually, by using this forum, we're doing the same thing.

A few rock related geocache pictures:

Allison and Grandma sitting on a mountain of jaspelite:


Stromatolite by Allison's knee:


Cool karst formation in the woods that we would have never known about except for geocaching:

Amen brother. truer words have never been spoken.

The sad part is that once these things go away they will probably never come back. Our club was responsible for getting my boys involved at around 9 yrs old by teaching classes for the elementary schools science events. My wife took the boys to the clubhouse for a couple years as pebble pups before I took interest and as most of you know I got snagged hook line and sinker.

Hopefully our club will continue to at least stay organized and have their meetings in the local library and still host the rock and gem shows etc. Only time will tell I suppose.

Chuck

Geocaching is a way to allow people to continue using technology BUT get off their ass and go outside. We met some lifelong friends Geocaching.Kidlet now would rather live in a city, use subways, and rather NOT go hiking, except with one buddy whose enthusiasm is infectious.

BTW, Russ, your Napoleon syndrome analysis could NOT have been more spot on. I rarely go to class anymore, partly because that itch-bay is so happy being "in charge" she feels the need to stick her authority in places where no authority is called for.