Last & First

This morning bright and early which means arriving a bit after 10am, I go to Sequoia Gem and Mineral Society show. Rumour has it that it is the last show, not of the year, but ever. (So sad. But thats another story.)

I zoom past the showcases, zoom past the vendors to the back of the hall, out the door. If you're uninitiated, you'd have thought I completely missed the show before I even got there. But out the door is where the action is.

Used to be every year members of the Rock club would donate their collection for the silent auction. This year being the last, there is a sale.

But at first sight there is just piles of rock on folding tables. Grey, brown, tan, rough boulders. And thats what they are called: rough. But blink and try and see the boulders as field-collected gems to be.

At strategic intervals on the six foot table are spray bottles of plain water. I find a stone I like, turn it, spray it, guess what, for a brief moment, it turns from dull to a gem-my green.

Then it's off to an emotional rollercoaster as I try and identify what it is I am holding. I ask the guy next to me what he thinks it is. Umm some sort of copper mineral. I seek and locate a mineral expert. Chert. I ask the head honcho at the workshop who's seen it all. Californian jade. We're getting some where now. Finally I find the guy who collected the stone. Idocrase he says. Before I drive off I get one last opinion: the annual vendor of specimen stones. He cracks open a book and say Vesuvianite. I thought it's idocrase, I say. Yes, it was idocrase before it was vesuvianite. Bingo concordance! I am at peace and can die happy.