An Afternoon When Time Stood Still
One day my wife was telling me about the brother of a friend she works with. When he was younger, his friend lost a ring while skipping stones. This ring had a lot of meaning to this young man because it being his late father's. That week we met up with Kathy's brother named, Harry. He gave us all the details about when and where, and the time frame of this lost ring. We came to a place, which for me, looked like a dried-up pond, but for Harry, it was just a day from his childhood.
Team Jackwick took the field. We split up and divided this small area and started swinging our CTX 3030s. The area quickly began getting harder and harder, for what I thought was dried up was only an illusion. Every hole we dug began filling up with water, making the reality of finding this ring very bleak. Two hours quickly past, and we decided to wait for a better condition to continue this search. We went to Harry's house to see some amazing stonework he had accomplished over the summer. While touring his work, he mentions to us his love of making rings out of old coins. He then told us about the first one he made out of a Morgan silver dollar, which had my attention because THAT is on the top of my list of things I want to find.
He took us back to his days of being in his twenties and playing football at a local ball field. He said, "that day, I lost that ring I had made out of that Morgan somewhere on that field while I was throwing the football around." He said, "I'm thinking it was around left to center field that I must have lost it."
Well, it just so happens that Jackalyn and I had been hunting in that area before. I told Harry that we had hunted it before only to find clad and some silver dimes. We said our goodbyes to Harry and decided to go and search that field before it got dark. We jumped out of the truck with authority, armed with this 40-year-old information. It felt like we were going into battle.
Jackalyn and I are very competitive on things like this. It wasn't long before she had found a silver rosy, along with another, then another. I was getting to the point of just saying she got me again. I walked away from the center field, heading to the right field, and that's when it happened. It's like I had gone back in time. It's like I was there that day, standing by Harry when he threw that pass to hit his receiver for that first down.
I heard this tone on my detector that I will never forget. I'm thinking to myself, could I have just found this man's ring? The ring that's been on his mind all this time, the ring that's been in the ground at this very spot for over 40 years. I started to dig my way down to this signal. After about 6 inches, I checked it again. The signal was still there, but a little stronger this time, so I knew it was a little deeper. I scooped the next shovel out to see something at the bottom left side of my hole. I gently rubbed some dirt off the top of this object then, without a doubt, I just stared at it.
I stood up and turned to Jackalyn. She was digging a hole of her own, so I started to just walk around, and then I just fell to the ground and looked up into the sky. After a while, I stood back up to yell at Jackalyn. She saw me pointing to my finger. She thought I had found just an ordinary ring, but then I told her. "HOLY SMOKE, I found his ring" I took pictures of it while still in the hole, then pulled it out.
AFTER 40 years, this ring that has alluded everyone else that detected here, every lawn mower, every little league, is coming out of the ground. I cleaned it off and saw the date on the inside, and then it hit me. I also found a Morgan dollar that I have always wanted to find!
It seemed like time stood still that afternoon, but the more I think about it, the more it sends chills down my spine. I know that some people may read this and think, 'Yea, so what? You found a ring…"
Well, they didn't see Harry's face when Jackalyn put it back in his hand that night. It was more than just finding a ring. It was all the circumstances that found us.
