Community Outlook
Best piece of advice: Mentor and follow through with continued mentoring to our youth.
– Kathy Hrechka, Alexandria, VA
Frank Perham taught me to recognize your soil, and check both sides of a stone, treasure could be waiting.
– Summer Black
Be persistent, go slow, look where others give up!
– Erik Rintamaki
Get there before others, go where others don’t go, dig deeper than others would dig. Drink plenty of water. Cull and be selective in the field so you can put more and better finds in your vehicle. Don’t trespass ever.
– Daniel Way
The amount of rocks you find is directly proportional to the amount of time you spend looking for them.
– Carl F. T. Harris
Slow down enjoy your pick
– Jeff Smith
When rock hunting “If you’re not finding anything slow down and look closer “!
– Chris Cooley
I’m a member of the Ventura Gem & Mineral Society (California), which was founded in 1944. Upon moving to Ventura and joining the club in 1998, I had the great pleasure to meet a couple of VGMS “old timers,” Bruno and Opal Benson. They were especially active between the 1950s and 1990s, when Bruno passed away, shortly after I met him. Opal invited me and my wife Nancy to her home to purchase an old display case Bruno had made decades earlier. She also showed us many a fossil specimen she and Bruno had collected during their travels far-and-wide, from Baja, Mexico, to Colorado and Wyoming and Utah and Idaho, as well as all up-and-down California. Elderly and stooped, Opal offered these words of wisdom: “Get out and do it all. Do it now, while you still can. If we could have done it over, Bruno and I would have traveled so much more, gone so much further. Don’t wait! Get out and do it all!” While nowhere nearly as old as Opal was when she offered up these pearls, I’m now old enough to fully appreciate the urgency behind those words. Life is short. When you realize how much time has passed, it can take your breath away. Get out and do it all!
-Jim Brace-Thompson
Be a diplomat for your hobby, your reputation will proceed you and land owners recognize that!
– Andrew Brodeur