I’ve just been spending time with relatives in Cornwall. Never enough time, I have to confess. Just enough to have a Cornish pasty, a clotted cream tea or two, walk along the harbor, admire the views and then off again. One thing I always do is to walk along the beach and collect shells and pebbles. I can’t help myself. I have more shells at home than I can ever use. They remain in bags in a closet, or they get discarded once I come home. But it is the finding that is the important part. I have the quest built into my DNA. I get great satisfaction from spotting an unusual shell, a twisted piece of driftwood, a shiny pebble. I suppose it’s the hunter-gatherer instinct from my ancestors.
One of the things I’ve always wanted to do is to search for buried treasure. I don’t mean the sort you see on television. I mean what they do routinely in England. They meet with metal detectors and they sweep a farmer’s newly plowed field (with his permission). In most parts of England they will find the odd Roman coin, or piece of jewelry, or weapon. Really exciting, don’t you think? Occasionally there are incredible finds—Viking hordes, Celtic burials. If your find is not worth much you can keep it. If it’s genuine treasure you have to hand it over to the Crown. You are reimbursed for its value but it goes into a museum.
I also always wanted to dig for precious stones. The closest I came was at a friend’s cabin in the California mountains where we discovered a vein of crystal. I can’t tell you how satisfying it was to dig into a rock face, see a glint of smooth crystal and to remove it carefully. I found that I was taking stupid risks, halfway up the rock face, swinging an axe with abandon. I could understand how the old prospectors felt in the Gold Rush. I have several really beautiful little clusters of crystals. I haven’t done anything with them but I still admire them.
I once almost went fossicking (the correct term for digging up diamonds etc) in the Northern Territory of Australia. We had driven out miles into the Bush and had instructions on how to meet up with Tony and Lil who would direct us to the best area to go digging for sapphires. We had to set out at first light because it gets too hot later on. We drove along a dirt track, seeing every kind of animals and bird along the way, then after about an hour of bumping along, we came to a creek. The bank was steep and sandy and we couldn’t tell how deep the creek itself was. We had a rental car, not a 4 wheel drive, and John refused to drive across. I pleaded. I offered to walk ahead to make sure it was okay. But he said he wasn’t about to get stuck or not be able to drive out through deep sand. And so we turned around and I sulked all the way.
Ah well. I guess I’ll go back to looking for shells on the beach..
So Reds, do you have that hunter-gatherer gene or do you confine it to snapping up a good bargain when Eileen Fisher goes on sale?
HALLIE EPHRON: I love walking on the beach and collecting shiny bits and shells and such. Digging for sapphires? I'm in! I'd draw the line at spelunking. I'm not crazy about tight quarters. Rhys, have you see THE DETECTORISTS? It's a British (somewhat comic, mostly sweet) series on ACORN TV about a pair of guys who are members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club as they search for treasure in the English countryside. It's brilliant.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: If someone said: "you might find a sapphire if you look in this certain area" I might. If someone said "you might find a sapphire if you look in this certain semi-dangerous area," I might further inquire. Sales, yes, because I am a REALLY fast decision-maker. Shells, I have to say, I leave them on the beach. Yes, I can understand the gold rush people--because riches MIGHT be around the next corner. That must have been crazy-making.
I have one rule for looking. If you keep looking, it will ALWAYS be there.
JENN McKINLAY: Definitely a hunter/gatherer here. I've collected shells and sea glass my entire life. Last year the hooligans and I raised our game and hiked out to a hidden Nova Scotian cove last year to reach the illusive amethyst beach. We had to race out and back against the tide, but it was so worth it as we now have a cache of amethysts that sparkle and bring me great joy. You're right, Rhys, there is nothing as satisfying as uncovering the coveted treasure!
LUCY BURDETTE: We one time searched for garnets in the North Carolina mountains and found quite a few. Now I cannot put my hands on them, boo hoo. But to be honest, you're more likely to find me hunting in shops for the right shoes or hats or something along those lines! (But please don't make me go to TJ Maxx--too much drek to sift through to find the gems. Although I did one time score two complete Eileen Fisher outfits. You've probably seen them...)
RHYS: Eileen Fisher! My kind of hunter-gatherer.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My hunting-gathering is precisely the "sorting through drek" kind. There's nothing I love more than pawing through boxes of clothes, accessories and household goods at a yard sale, searching for gems like a vintage Coach bag for a buck, a 100% wool LLBean sweater for $5 or the complete Glenn Miller Band recordings - free! Then there's the thrill of finding some half-forgotten childhood favorite in hardcover at one of those used books stores housed in a barn with miles of shelves and nooks and crannies.
It's not that I don't love the natural world - I do! - but I think I was heavily influenced in my childhood by an uncle who always stressed, "Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints."
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hallie, I love the Detectorists!! And if I lived in England, I might be tempted to get out with my metal detector and hunt for Roman coins. I collected rocks as a child, but the closest I've ever come to digging for treasure was mining for diamonds on our yearly summer trips to Arkansas. I never found anything, but it does happen. Just a couple of years ago, a twelve-year-old boy found a five carat rough diamond in Crater of Diamonds state park!
RHYS: I've always wanted to go to the opal mines in Australia, where the people live underground because of the heat. But they are awfully far from anywhere! And I just looked up metal detectors online and see that the good ones cost $3000 and up. And they look heavy too. Maybe I'll stick to shells.
So do we have any other hunter-gatherers among us? Those who can't come home from the beach or the lake without shells or pebbles? Any fantastic finds? I guess garage sales also count. I'm always hoping to find a lost Rembrandt.
