World of the Rockhound; 14

Want you want to lie. Right. Right right right. The second largest craft hobby in America today is said to be rock counting with all of its branches of interest some of which I jam cutting making jewelry and the collection of gem stones rocks minerals and fossils. This universal hobby has grown to astonishing proportions in the last 25 years and shows signs of even more rapid growth as the need develops for more people to pursue more leisure time activities due to the fact that the working few hours have more days off and get more vacation time. Rocks and minerals are specimens of extreme importance to the rock. However most people do not realize the importance of rocks and minerals play in everyday living.

For example fluorite used in toothpaste and clothing. This series of programs designed to give an overall picture of the rockhound offer encouragement to the newcomer in this hobby and present information of general interest to everyone. All of this will be examined as we explore the world of the rock out. Of. Today's programme is entitled buy sell and trade. The narrator is Len folk. Last week we discussed rock hounding as a universal hobby. Many people travel to other countries to do their collecting but those who stay at home also collect from Mexico Africa Thailand Argentina or many places in the world with the assistance of importers and dealers who buy sell and trade. A person wishing to accumulate a reference collection would do well to scan the advertisement in

rock and mineral magazines. Learn something about the many dealers who offer material for sale and shipment from other collectors. The prospect of buyer can get names of mineral suppliers. And at conventions in how he shows he can examine the merchandise that the many dealers who set up commercial exhibits. Show. As with any other commodity prices vary and it's wise to know something about the item being purchased. From experience one soon learns that it pays to buy minerals of excellent quality even though it's necessary to pay more far than in acquiring a collection. The beginning rockhound may be able to buy only one or two specimens at a time. But before long he will have a substantial collection such as that of high school senior Larry Christodoulou who plans a career in geology. In a very few years Larry has

accumulated specimens of approximately four hundred fifty different minerals. Many of these specimens have been collected on field trips and in traveling to states surrounding Tennessee. However a large percentage have come through the mail from dealers all over the world. And I stated earlier on within the radius of Tennessee that some. Come From. Oh here. Russia. Or. Germany. But most of them are. Going off grid. It was from Bohemia Russia and Germany. Did you buy those. They had to be purchased and when he purchased them from dealers here in this country. There are several dealers which. Sale very specimens of minerals. And. For a reasonable price a lot of times you can buy. But of course they're in that business to make money. And you got spanked at so. You just have to finger through their catalog from the day from work. Which one you want.

But show me some of these specimens. One specimen which a priceless carcass right. And it said Hanaud. And what kind of own hand. And this one come from Zen was Bohemia. And it's very heavy. When you get these things through the mail from dealers. I guess you do get them through the mail that you that you order you how they pay their packed in newspaper. Wasn't it. Look at how to do it in cotton I guess it would be the right way. Well the one is usually ordered through the mail and they're on their exceptional Crystal specimens all say if you do bad one there used to have a number for Saturday something. A little note like this one collector which is so everyone's president says Sorry but we cannot ship this you'll have to come into. To his building where he has been to pick it up. He's not going to be responsible for it.

But if you want it should go anyway could you do it. All round. The risk would be quite a bit because on the ones he's talking about it has crystals radiating out sad. Of the specimen. And image are only Jarka down. Very well snap it. And it be the price ever it's $480 so it wouldn't be worth shipping. Big rocks in expensive are they. They can be expensive. But some of. Them. Can be a real good bad because you would invest in these things. And as time wears on. They increase in value your specimens of night and if you could go back and back specimens. You could bat for half the price you would pay for me today. And he said specimens of 1910. You could you could buy it in 1910 for half that and it would take us twice as much now. In other words a specimen of. A mineral that we consider rare today.

Might not cost as much value wines as it does now. But. In a cost rise would be the same like we pay. $25 for a specimen now were they paid maybe found for it then but their money value voice about the same today. Well I was going to say is that because of the rising prices I had the mineral itself become a valuable due to rareness. It's due to both. Inflation has caused quite a bit of it. Are. Very good bodies which existed back then that had been worked out. Then one of the specimens taken from those they've increased and they're back here now with more data and they were. 50 years ago. King had a specimen. Take two specimens of him you know with a mineral well. Taking out a long long time ago and my mood has just recently been taken and can you tell any difference in the

two. Well that's that's based on two things. With Meryl decomposes upon. Exposure day moisture. And nothing would be. To be the way it was handled. And. For one thing you're agile right specimens. I've got one hand here that I bought that I. Came from a collection made existed down 93 years ago. And it looks as though it's been taken out of the ground recently. Right. It was from a collection it was exhibit it. Oh yeah. Worlds. I commission and 1891. And it's part of a larger piece that came from it. And compare this up against a present day specimen. And you would be able to tell much difference but I mean I was like chalk can be could decompose readily upon and. I exposed you to air

and water. And you can tell I want to came out with him and say I'm on. Or. A day. Because. The right to decompose and the competition is quite. Rapid. That was Larry Christodoulou high school senior who has an extensive rock and mineral collection. The price range of minerals purchased from dealers is wide and in general one pays more today than in the years past. However for Larry who intends to continue increasing his collection this is a good investment and a lasting one. Hundreds of rock and mineral suppliers are listed in nationally distributed magazines and catalogs. These range from large scientific supply houses to the local gift shops or even rock stands by the side of the road. And the item sold vary from the five cent rock. To highly valuable gems downed. At the Johns gem shop in Brentwood Tennessee. One

finds not only a supply of rocks and minerals but also machinery such as jam tumblers and diamond saws and pass it in machines. All of these used in life are dairy work. There are ornamental carved figures made from onyx and Amber and jewelry made by Mrs. Jones. Also on hand are enormous slabs of raw materials. And small trays filled with polished stones according to proprietor may you P Jones these materials come from many many countries that we have known that were you know double Polish Roman rep material we bought all over the world. Stones here from Africa Australia India Raziel Mexico I want to know United States and Canada. We get them in large chunks and break and assault them and then. Parse human machine similar to a concrete mixer.

It takes from five to eight weeks to accomplish the polishing action for you get the shipments at brockport or they can do a cannon box truck. Oh yeah you ship much we import some stuff directly from it sources most of it to be buy from larger dealers and importers in this country overseas shipments may be coming either in heavy wood boxes or even double the total sac bags. Either way it's all right and on the quality and the value of the tariff it's very material if you to put up and get tight boxes. If it's cheap material it's your duty and just double talk sacks. You know like you question anything it be the yardstick we rely on the honesty and. Integrity of the dealers and we have learned it to know who we can trust and this business like you will if you've been in a while we've gotten things occasionally that to write quite what we expected but we ran the dealers are well who

are alive and that's the ones we do business with. They usually describe the things quite accurately and I certain standards in the business of quality and if a material is sold as fasting grade you know it is a fine quality. Perfect clear. I might might explain this point that Finnish Stones have three names depending on the shape. If they are clear stones and cut like a diamond with many plain surfaces they're called faceted stones. It then symmetrical stones either round over long rectangular or square. Any such shape but symmetrical. They're referred to as cabbage Jones Cabo CHL and if you are going to shape or asymmetrical they are broken. And the class of material

often is described as being for calves for cash on blokes on fasting and fasting is the top grade because it has to be perfectly clear and the finest material. I mean you do that back in here. No no we have fasting equipment there is one right. But sad rabble there that cut up with this plastic cow that's a fasting machine have never done a shop but fasting is strictly for hobbyists because we can't compete in time wise with a professionals in Germany and Austria and Japan because they've been doing it for centuries for generations they have great you know automatic whip meant that they can set up and cut a number of stones one time so we can bypass a stone from the big cutters for a fraction of what it took cost us to make them myself. And I'd like to talk to Miss Johnson many criteria throughout our market as to how long I can be doing this sort of thing. A man 16 years. How did you happen to get started with him. Didn't want to get

started with it and you know I'm doing him. Does that town bring harm and when you might think the dirty part of it when you acted like with this dead ones and after you get them polished and you should take them and divide them into different classes. And no one come up into the general. In addition to the trays of jewelry we looked at stones from Italy India and carved figures from Mexico. We asked Mrs. Jones if she and her husband did much traveling. Well not too much we hope to never have to go into this for a time like I stuck to the book and we're going to get it and do a lot more. All the while I used to be just more honest than you. He worked every day and Amber here in the shop more layers. And I am turning it back to him you look you know. But if you're going to be even a madman you've got to be here all the time everywhere are. We asked about the little numbers on each item in the shop. And we found that

that was part of the work Mrs. Jones is doing. Do you have a model. Think every day I have had a low rate Oh about the pie and a piece. And I don't think it hasn't been a judge been telling their stuff. We are still working on it. But I do wonder Betty and I were going to do it together very well but here we have been doing it together of years I've done it by Maceo and you'd be so crass quickly that I had to look at the Jones gym shop in Brentwood Tennessee the rock around especially the lapidary can purchase whatever he needs in machinery raw materials and finished jewelry and he can learn much by talking with Mr. Ms Jones. This is also a place where classes of schoolchildren come on field trips. As said previously the shop has been in operation about six years. Across town is another shop. The old South shop where Mr. John Anderson and Mrs. Jean Dicus

are partners it is comparatively new and located on a busy highway. Many cars stop at the sign which indicates that among other things this is a rock shop. There's a great variety in what is so old and there is a great variety in the types of visitors. Also here we talk with Mrs. Jean Dicus are shoppers. I would say in its infant stages. We're still a baby in the rock. Well. Not in my interest but in all the mass effort to give something to the community. And we have a variety of custom most and some of the gel I have my last. And I don't understand most of what we're doing. Now one customer yesterday was in the shop of the first time. John off NPR. But she looked at the showcases in the wonderful world of minerals exposed to Jim's dogs and I tried to explain. The things we have samples from out

of the United States all over the world. Educational science full. Of raw materials that could be cut and crafted. You're in a position was and she was amazed and astounded that any such existed. She had not run into it before in a store. And her first thought well I wouldn't don't imagine that enough people are interested in this. I can't imagine it being. In the public like this. And she was full of questions I could tell you. But then the next person that walks in comes carrying a box so I know we have a rock. Who understands us and our world of love an interest in the minerals of the fossils and so on. And they brought out to share something they found in my account. And they asked if they were from out of state. And I so many questions of about things that I hear and I made a mistake. And so we have no trouble in communicating with other

rock. But we found a puzzled expression on the faces of people who have not seen this before. Because rock shops are not very prevalent in this. Part of the country. As well if. You're out on the highway you're not in the main business section. Do you have a lot of travelers who just see the shout maybe stop and come in and look around. Yes we do and these are my favorite people. The broader people in the travels the more they are exposed to what's in the world of random and the broader their interests. Are and these are people those who are traveling and from out of state. Can you give me any idea of where some of these people have come from and where they're going. You keep any records or can you remember them I mean we don't dish it keep an accurate record of this because we aren't actually on a tourist halfway so that we get this right but whenever we have them they are from all over the United

States and they happen to see that rock side and they understand it and they always come in. Warmly and interestedly and. And we have a wonderful time. They usually spend hours with us. But there's so much to see here. You might call this a combination gift shop and rock shop. Would that be correct. As I said when my infant stages and we're going to become a folk art shop. It will be called the old folk and naturally. Mr. Anderson. He's been in geology. He has done prospecting and mining out of the West. So his interest also in hunting fishing and the taxidermy work. I. Became interested in the shop because I was studying art at Chic broad which put me in the neighborhood close to the sad guy ends of good. And seeing the collection Miss Manderson had.

Minerals and fossils. And the taxidermy work. He also was showing artwork and all of this was of interest to me. You know but it's been a recent write up in Life magazine of the artist Georgia O'Keefe. She's one of my favorite artists we have a few women artist in the United States who have. Become well-known and recognized in their lifetime. And I'm sure of it. But many people have seen the recent publication in life the. Cover. Of the magazine shield the picture of an animal. And here is a bra she takes them on an evening walk. In Mexico. She observes the stuff. The sky. The bones of the animals. She's a naturalist in love with the matcher world and an artist. And we have goals. In the show. The saddest of all the things that of

beauty and interest. To an artist. Don't you think that's so often the case anyone who's interested in one comment may care will be interested in in many forms of nature. I do believe this however in working with Johnny at the shop. And being in a relationship that's different from what I've ever been in before I've always been a customer in a shop and I've never been on the other side of the counter to assist a customer. As I'm doing now I am. And I find that we can I can tailor Jonna to when they come through the door. What department are they coming to. And we find in the rock arms that many are not interested in every facet of the rocks. If we have some customers who just about ancient Indian artifacts. And we keep a showcase devoted just to that Stone Age minds to have

scrapers chopper's agricultural to pottery spearheads projectile parts all the things made out of the rock. By a primitive man and some are interested in just these things and come to us for that one thing to see everything we have and to share with us everything they have in. The middle come jest a semi-precious stone. Things from Brazil Amethyst a tiger to have something crafted in jewelry. But we know that so I guess we're best out of the camera because interest in love is alive. But you say you can tell when they come in the door what their interest is going to be. How can you tell it. Well we have two main departments of the shop the gift and not the apartment I want and the rock showcases and minerals. If they come through but no one and they can't get past that immediate area they are probably artist homemakers who are interested in an artistic item from the

home. But if they are rock am that come through that door like they never nobody into the shop exist and they come right down here to the rock showcases and when they leave by pass that of a department as though it were not even present in the St.. So its easy after becoming associated with Mr. John Anderson in this shop this is Dicus realized that she had been a rock around all her life without knowing it. My had been a rock band all my life and I didn't know it. I didn't know what to call my hair. I didn't label myself even as peculiar just as interested in the world of my own Moet seemed and some people could never go out of doors. And get my own and I collected from the time I was a kindergarten age. And had really never heard the term. But in my home I would gather. And I had a rock collection and a very

good one when I was very young and really had no technical understanding of what I was doing. But when I met John. And know how it is to be a rock band you're out on your feet in this world exploring and looking. And jump in a wheelchair I am a victim of polio so I knew that. Sometime in his wife he'd been a real rock and I would have the showcases. That he had his personal collection in the showcases that he had done prospecting at where hed had tons of interesting experiences. He had samples of them from Madame Curie which. Is radium. Radioactive material. Why do pieces of petrified wood from out West and he would tell me of many experiences in mining and prospecting that he tied. But having

contracted polio before the cell mixing was available. He's a little bit you might say Opus. But right now I am but not. Not in the middle interest it goes Oh Mont you rock and you want from life. I remember saying people are born that way. That they seldom acquire but in it it is something in that and that go with the person to be keenly observant. And keenly sensitive to the world around them oh so Banaba and John was obviously Bierce in his love. The taxidermists work the haunting the animals he had observed nature as a very young child even kindergarten age he had been trapping animals and harboring and training. So he had lived very close very young also to the natural world and of course Iraq so. Many children came into this shop. And Mrs. Dicus explained it to children. I particularly fascinated with the rocks that float wrecks that band

and magnetic rocks with moving crystals. We have rock that throw. Rocks but move. Rocks being. In an. Election we recently have put just some science don't rock from North Carolina. And since our purchasing the supply has been frozen it's been found to contain them and us. But it's sandstone described to us as having a hacked content of Mica and this rock will begin. With the pressure of the hands and it's fascinating we had a soda come yesterday from Sue and I am Force Base to sign it and now our youngsters are fascinated to the rocket floats of course is the volcanic ash and the rock that moves is the magnetic loadstone is it Crystal. We have the cycle. It's crystal as magnetic loadstone and those crystals move.

With the mag anatomy. During our conversation we heard birds chirping in the background. And we found this shop also contained many pets. My pets I. Am too but it has a gift department. Two lovely little birds green blue red heads. They are technically color peach but east african love birds. And then with them we have a Spanish parakeet. Now on the rock shopping end we have a quite young baby a. She she loves to lie and John Cowles to her. The naturalist that he is he also teaches Cowing of our animals. And he has I think just done a great service to our the men of this area. They've learned to call foxes and other animals to help them in their hunting. Over so much I

wanna say but back to the pit. One of his favorites is the little screech in the cage over here with its pets. It certainly is a place of great variety and it's understood that there business are dedicated to the development of an interest in the hobby and customers like Larry Christodoulou both of whom were heard earlier on today's program. Are educational.