WARNING!
Reading further will not increase your finds, tell you how to play the nail/dime/board game, give you ammunition to brag about how your detector is better than the other guy’s or tell you when that just announced “greatest detector since white bread” will see the light of day….
For the first time in 81 years I finally drove my car into a garage. Yup, hard to believe but true….
My wife Fay was a collector of all things over the years and to some extent so was I. As a result we accumulated a lot of stuff, some good, some not. It was stuff we thought we needed at the time but after sitting in it’s box or container it just took up space, as in one medium storage unit and a two car garage.
After her passing in April the kids and I took inventory of all the stuff, the monthly payments for the storage unit and decided we needed to do something. The end result is that the kids took a few things that they could use, I took stock of my stuff and did the same. The rest? A few things to the local “Helping Hands” organization and the rest to an auction company. Long story short – we no longer pay for a storage unit and the garage is now used for its intended purpose. Hallelujah!
In the process of sorting the “old” stuff I found a few tekkie things from the good ole days. Days when metal detecting was easy, productive and a helluva lot of fun. Days when all you had to do was set a couple knobs, scan the soil and dig. Days when you didn’t have to look over your shoulder and when seeing another detectorist was rare and worth a stop to chat. It isn’t my imagination either. It WAS a simpler time.
I found material from the early FMDAC days. I found old publications and correspondence that reinforced and reminded of just how much things have changed over the years. Take a gander at the list of FMDAC clubs in the mid eighties – 132 dues paying organizations. Today, according to their website, they have 20.
FMDAC member clubs mid 80’s …
There was a box with old newsletters and printed material from the 70’s and 80’s. Back when we had a multitude of publications to look forward to and by that I mean reading material you could hold in your hands, and if you wanted to you could even bend a page corner so that you could return to that article later. No passwords, no downloads, etc.. Yeah you had to wait for the mails to work but wasn’t it a whole lot better that way and didn’t it make your day a brighter?
Any of these ring a bell?
I found letters, manuals, agreements and congressional bills. All important at the time. Today? No one cares…
On the left an agreement between the FMDAC and the New York Institute of Anthropology where they received two detectors from Whites to aid their research and promised to utilize FMDAC members in their future endeavors. They took the detectors and we never heard back. On the right the FMDAC Search & Recovery Team manual. Just one of many aids we gave to every member club.
I was a fanatical record keeper in the beginning, analyzing everything little thing….
I found photos of club meetings, hunts, even an old plastic container of still dirty coins that I forgot to clean. I found an old sports bag that had a lower shaft for a Garrett detector I no longer had and a bent probe. I could go on but I know this isn’t of interest to most of you. It’s not now. It’s not today and it’s not helping you. It’s just old stuff from an old dude who can’t seem to get with it but so you know, I understand. I get it and I’ll try to do better but I won’t make promises.
_______________
For all the “Professional” Treasure Hunters out there..
Cheer Up!! A new season of “The Worse Curse of Oak Island is coming and if that’s not enough to satisfy your gullibility there more! “Beyond Oak Island” is also on the way. So get ready…stock up on the popcorn and beer. The History Channel loves you.
_______________
Stout Standards 
I know all about Stuff as well. We pay for a small storage unit. But we don’t have a garage. I’ve paired down a lot over the years. When my grandfather passed last year, at age 102, it took my mom, my dad, myself, my wife, and several uncles, cousins, to go through everything in his house. It took a month to parse through everything. He was quite the collector as well. It gave my wife and I incentive to pair down our own collections.
I too miss the “good ole days” before the interwebs. I came into Detecting at age 15, it was 1987. I loved going to the post office to collect my weekly pen pal letters or going to the local Community Newscenter to buy my favorite monthly Lost Treasure and Western & Eastern Treasures magazines. Going detecting with my uncle with his Compass Coinscanner(?) and my 2nd cousin with his BH Big Bud Pro, out an about on weekends, me with my trusty Tesoro Silver Sabre Plus.
Luke Fay and I were married for 55 years and it was hard to part with things but it had to be done.
dick! your concern about you not “getting it” is noted, but totally unnecessary!. the new wonder toys still transmit a signal into the ground, and receive a signal back through the coil.nothing has changed. you always did it right like the rest of us old f****s. what has changed is that everyone is scrambling for coins “masked” by junk like a pack of dogs scrambling for scraps at longshanks table. the gravy train may have passed the station,BUT there is still stuff out there worth “lusting” after IF ya got “tons” of time and a good digger!…just sayin’
(h.h.!)
j (get you some!) t.
“there is still stuff out there worth “lusting” after IF ya got “tons” of time and a good digger!”
And don’t forget money and good health…..
this is true dick! money?..not so much, but TIME is always of the essence!
(h.h.!)
j.t.
Dick I am much like yourself for the past 70 + years I have collected and stored items which I have tried to convince myself that I will keep that as I may have a use for it in the future well the future has slowly crept up on me and I now face mountains of items some of which I haven’t even opened, I stand back and now tell myself what a damned waste of money this stuff cost me a fortune in years gone by but are now worth zilch and obsolete and the same goes for my wardrobes and drawers full to the brim with suits and other old fashioned gear some dating back to the early “Rock-n-Roll years” I do believe I have my wedding suit from 60 years back, I better stop as I am getting a lump in my throat.
Understand the lump in throat. It’s been hard for me to look at things we had and then make the decision to give away or throw away. Good or bad, expensive or cheap, there’s often a story that goes along with each. Never thought I would be in this position.
Have a great day Randy.
All the stuff I’m sorting out is all the crap that the cheating ex left behind. She was a pack rat.
what? women cheat? how can this be? must be a mistake! we are all childern of god,and as such, are weak, sinful,and imperfect in the eyes of Jesus.
(h.h.!)
j.t.
😂
Glad your parked in the garage, it helps avoid the heat and other weather. We have a similar situation, nuff said. One thing for sure, we feel by going through stuff and moving on with it gives us both a good feeling of accomplishment and I can say that feeling gets addictive!
On the club list above I see ECRDA was based in Wayne, NJ. That was the hotbed of adventure for many that you know or have known.
Well Dick, I’ve only been in this hobby about 15 years, and am already wondering what the heck am I going to do with all this stuff. I can only imagine how much you had collected over the years. I think about cleaning up and cleaning out, but it’s so hard to let go—I have a bucket of spoons, dirty plated spoons, and I know I should get rid of them, but it pains me to think they won’t be there anymore when I find my next spoon. There’s some kind of attachment to them. Maybe because I found them, I’m not really sure, but I know I want them, even though they are just dirty, crappy spoons.
And spoons are just an example—there are buckets and boxes, and ziplock bags full of other dirty, worthless items I dare not throw away. I feel I will be in the same boat as you were soon enough. I think I need an intervention 😊.
a “divine” one is always welcomed!”for what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul!
“book of mark”
(h.h.!)
j.t.
Allyson did not get rid of my finds, good or bad. My grandkids will probably inherit them and wonder what the hell was wrong with me….
Dick:
I’m shocked, shocked! Indeed, I’m very shocked! Are you telling me that the Oak Island series is not Kosher? Television features, like politicians, lawyers, and real estate agents, are honest and above reproach. I’m shocked at your skepticism. Did I say I was shocked?
I’m just sayin’
I did not say that. I just mentioned that “The Worst of Oak Island” was returning for another season.
Er…didn’t come across $20 in your garage by any chance….
No but I found a few photos of you from the mid-80’s that you should be
concerned aboutinterested in…..reverend! got washed out to sea! a long time ago! shocking! ..I’m just sayin’
(h.h.!)
j.t.
reverend! he gave it to the “great unwashed” a long time ago!
(h.h.!)
j (5th stab is done!) t.
I’d have to bet that just about everyone who ever swung a detector has saved a lot of their personal “treasure” AKA junk, and I’m no exception.
That said, I can say though, that my personal pile of junk is very small because I threw most of it away or gave a few things away to my grandson many years ago. Right now, I only have a plastic container with an assortment of toy cars, junk jewelry, tokens, etc. etc. which has no real value and no purpose other than to take up space. Someday I may bring myself to get rid of it.
I do have and will never throw away my hundreds of old metal detecting magazines that date back to the 1970’s through the 2000’s when the publishers went to digital only. I pull a few out every winter and read a few of the articles and get a chuckle out of some of the old advertisements. I’ve kept all the silver and gold finds….coins and jewelry…. and will keep them forever. For whatever reason, I feel some sort of attachment to them.
You know Ed I wish I had saved all my magazines too. Every once in a while I’ll pick one up and read an article or two. Still lots of good info in them…
sure to be dick! used to love all the “treasure found’ mags couldn’t buy ’em fast enough when they hit the news stands! always “true to life” things found with detectors fascinating reading! still refer to them occasionally myself.
(h.h.!)
j.t.