Longhair
Elite Member
I seldom hunt parks anymore, but today on a lark, and because I had a little unexpected time on my hands, I went to a small local park for what I thought would be a short hunt. Everybody has pounded that park for decades, so there is typically not much to find there, but I hadn't been there for a couple years.
When I got there, I discovered that they're in the process of tearing out the old ball field to build some newfangled bike thing. There was a mini-excavator and a bulldozer parked there next to what I can only describe as a mess. If I didn't know better, I would guess that it's being done with volunteer operators. Anyway I decided to take advantage of their having scraped off the sod (and then some) to see if they'd exposed anything worthwhile. Turns out they did.....not a lot, but some. There weren't a lot of targets to start with, but then I started hitting copper pennies. The first one was a '56 Wheat, and I thought "Cool, the year I was born!" The next target was a '74 Memorial, and I thought "Cool, the year I graduated High School!"
Then I dug a few more Memorials, and the next Wheat I turned up was a '53. I seized up for a minute. It was May 10th, my sister's birthday, and she was born in '53. If she were still alive it would have been her 70th birthday today. And if that wasn't enough, after a few more coppers I dug a '46 Nickel. My parents were married in '46.
I didn't want to stop, but the mosquitos came out and I had already spent way more time there than I'd originally planned. I walked away with 1 clad dime, 12 copper Memorials, 6 Wheats (3 of them were '56), 1 '46 Nickel, 1 '50 Rosie, and an old Varsity pin for Baseball.
I'm afraid that it will get worked again before I can get back there, and at a certain point I won't be able to hunt it, but if I can I will.
When I got there, I discovered that they're in the process of tearing out the old ball field to build some newfangled bike thing. There was a mini-excavator and a bulldozer parked there next to what I can only describe as a mess. If I didn't know better, I would guess that it's being done with volunteer operators. Anyway I decided to take advantage of their having scraped off the sod (and then some) to see if they'd exposed anything worthwhile. Turns out they did.....not a lot, but some. There weren't a lot of targets to start with, but then I started hitting copper pennies. The first one was a '56 Wheat, and I thought "Cool, the year I was born!" The next target was a '74 Memorial, and I thought "Cool, the year I graduated High School!"
Then I dug a few more Memorials, and the next Wheat I turned up was a '53. I seized up for a minute. It was May 10th, my sister's birthday, and she was born in '53. If she were still alive it would have been her 70th birthday today. And if that wasn't enough, after a few more coppers I dug a '46 Nickel. My parents were married in '46.
I didn't want to stop, but the mosquitos came out and I had already spent way more time there than I'd originally planned. I walked away with 1 clad dime, 12 copper Memorials, 6 Wheats (3 of them were '56), 1 '46 Nickel, 1 '50 Rosie, and an old Varsity pin for Baseball.
I'm afraid that it will get worked again before I can get back there, and at a certain point I won't be able to hunt it, but if I can I will.
