Got Chased from a City Park Today

[marcomo]

Tom, so you are round-the-clock hardcore, eh?

Those desert ruins and storm exposed beaches do sound awfully interesting...

You make a good point about inexperience being a major handicap for anyone new to overcome.

I've been enjoying this hobby a lot less time than you, so I can remember very well when I started. I wanted old coins and interesting old stuff. I wasn't out for clad, but that's what I dug. Along with what seemed like a truckload of trash. Took me about 30 hours to find my first old items - a wheatie, then a eaten up old zinc tax token.

All those sites I thought would be so swell weren't. Partly due to site selection, but primarily because of my lack of experience.

My point being had I not really been committed to learning the hobby, it would have been easy to drop out in the beginning. I can certainly understand why so many do.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Marco, I recall when I Was our club president in the early to mid 1990's, that the following scenario un-folded multiple times: A newbie would visit , and grow envious of the old coins he'd see at the monthly show -&-tell sessions . So he'd go out and find all the history books he could on our area , and start researching. But naturally, they'd be the same history books we'd studied and exploited 10, 15, or 20 yrs. earlier . Doh! And they'd come in to the next meetings with "sure-fired" leads on old country picnic sites, stage stops, etc... And us oldtimers would roll our eyes knowing those spots had been pounded to smithereens. Or they come in with sure-fired leads to something they would have no idea had been flooded out , or was now under a shopping mall, etc... All things that to the oldtimers was "been there, done that ,tried that".

 

[togamac]

TJ,
My reply to someone who tells me that I "can't be digging up the place" is: "Please don't tell half the story. This is the whole story. Yes, I am digging. But, I'm doing it in such a way that when I'm done and have filled and tamped the soil in the hole, there's hardly evidence there that I was digging at all and I'm leaving the sod attached on one side so that it doesn't die and leave a brown spot. Here, let me show you a hole I've dug and refilled. By the way this is some of the stuff I've found and will be removing from the park. (Always carry a screw-on soda cap with broken glass attached!) And also, if I find any trash around, I pick that up too and remove it."
With a smile ask him/her if they see what you mean by half of the story. Chance are you'll make a new friend and he may soften his attitude.
Good luck.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

togamac, you're right: Any gripes about "digging" are inherently and implicitlyl referring to the END results. Afterall: what is the connotation of "digging" ? HOLES. Same for rules that talk about "defacement" and "alterations" and so forth. ALL SUCH VERBAGE implies the end result. Thus if you leave no trace of your presence, then technically, you have not violated such things.

And sure, you can try to debate semantics on that with someone (like you spell out) if you want. But better yet, I just avoid such lookie-lous to begin with, and go at odd-ball times when no busy-bodies are present. It's gotten to where I even hunt turfed parks at night now.