Yes you can and should hunt the grass areas. But first, lets look at tot lots and what they represent.
WhHat we call "Tot Lots" are much more than they appear - for us, they are about concentration of effort. They are an obvious indicator to us of a place where people have done active things. Ditto ball fields and swimming pools and volleyball courts. This is why we instinctively gravitate to them when detecting. Using this knowledge of the past ups your chances that something has been lost by those who have gone before you. If you like, you can call such places "focal points."
Now take a hard look at the grass field down at the park or school. Can you pinpint the focal points in the field, as well? Maybe there is a weekened pickup game that happens over there. I have one of these focal points near my home.
Every Sunday the Latino's in my community have a soccer game in one corner of the large athletic recreation area in our city. It is unofficial and started quite small, although it has grown in popularity. But, it is unseen by the casual observer, since there is nothing to indicate that it happens I have found plenty of coins and a nice amethyst ring there; the only guy around, all alone out there in the middle of what appears to be only a grass field.
Or maybe there is a carnival or festival held one particular area of that grass field. The elmentary school near my home has just such an event, what they call their annual "Field Day." The kids play lots of games and other activites and the entire community turns out. There are bake sales and a thronging crowd, all concentrated in an area the size of half a football field. At least a thousand people are there, year after year. I have found wheaties going back to the 40's on that small section of school ground. There was also a baseball field nearby that no longer exists.
You can also do this with a site that has a long history. Indeed you must if you are to succeed at finding the older stuff. Chances are good what you see now is different than it was in the past. Try to learn where things were in days gone by and you will begin to unravel just where the older coins and things will be.
Our city park was once a neighborhood, going back to the 30's. The homes are all razed now and only grass fields cover ther former locations. One day, I found an old map of that neighborhood in the public library and made a copy. I have since used that map more than a few times to direct me to older coins and goodies out in the middle of the grass fields - where once stood someone's home and where they lost things.
The one thing all these areas have in common is that to look at them, you'd never know anyting ever happened there. All that is visible are the bugs crawling in the vast expanse of grass. That is what you need to unravel - just where has the activity occured that makes one spot better than another? If you dont do that, you are swinging your coil on chance alone. If you DO learn this crucial information, your success rate will climb.
That is really the crux of what we detectrists do. We look for signs today that something has gone on before us. The past can be yesterday, as in a tot lot, or last century in the case of a farmers field or vacant lot.
Any one thing can be in any one place, of course. But to get good at this detecting business, your job is to look for the places that up the odds in your favor...
