Friday, March 21, 2008

The Bounty!

Metal detectors...they are a curious little tool. A funny looking little device that makes odd quirky noises upon detecting metal. Hmmm. I've always wanted to hang out with the seemingly atypical characters that obviously take their treasure hunting seriously. Well, instead of watching one...I became one. My recent stay at the beach was a little breezy for laying...waaay too cold for swimming...but, just perfect for hunting. The photo above is the end result of five hours of intense scanning and digging. This little attempt at killing the morning, became a mindless obsession for the family. The first initial screeching of the metal detector sent us into a rage of digging. The 1st unearthed paperclip made us wonder...the 22nd unearthed paperclip made us debate two things: 1. people are doing entirely too much work on the beach...or 2. an Office Depot container had no doubt sank out in the ocean blue, for there was absolutely no reason for the beach to be harboring that many rusty paperclips. The bottle caps could be explained...the eighty-six cents was a bonus....the lost bungalow key was somewhat disturbing...and the many bolts and screws created many discussions about hurricanes. An added bonus to being a "Metal Detector-ive" is the magnetism it holds to humans. Countless people would stop and ask to see our bounty...wait for the unearthing...or ask where we got the detector. It was an immediate conversation starter. (FYI: anyone wanting to meet people on the beach, rent a metal detector)

The family laughed, created weird little explanations, bonded, met equally curious people, and received monetary reward...all in all, the odd choice of rental rewarded the largest bounty.

3 comments:

melissa ellen parker said...

I just laughed really hard and wondered all at the same time. I might just try this out sometime!

Anonymous said...

Now I think that would be a blast to do at the beach. I have seen others doing it at the beach but your post made me want to do it too. And it is a bit odd about all the paper clips. :) ~ Lynn

Yvette said...

I've always thought it looked like a fun activity.