May 2002Volume 2, Issue 2
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North Mississippi
Gem and Mineral
Society Officers
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President: Floy Hawkins
P.O. Box 7312
Tupelo, MS 38802
(662) 844-7441
studioh@dixie-net.com
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Vice President: Bob Marshall
68 CR 331
Iuka, MS 38852
(662) 423-3791
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Secretary: Rena Everett
69 Jeff Street
Oxford, MS 38655
(662) 234-8561
mlgae@olemiss.edu
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Treasurer: Shirly Randle
905 Poorhouse Road, E.
Starkville, MS 39759
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Newsletter Editor: Sandy Grych
P.O. Box 283
Mathiston, MS 39752
(662) 263-8405
sigrych@yahoo.com
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Next Meeting
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Saturday, May 18
1 P.M.
People's Bank
Walnut, Mississippi
Directions:
At the intersection of
Highways 15 and 72
Program:Dr. Bruce PanuskaDept of Geosciences
Mississippi State University
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NMGMS April Minutes by Rena Everett, Secretary
Raffle, stamps, announcements top club news
The monthly meeting of the North Mississippi Gem and Mineral Society was held at the Northeast Regional Library in Corinth, Miss. on April 20, 2002. The meeting was called to order by the President, Floy Hawkins, at 1:10 p.m., and the first order of business was the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Arch Murphree reported that we had 18 members and two guests present. One of our guests wanted to join the club, and she was welcomed to membership.
The minutes of the last meeting were approved as printed in The Nugget. As the treasurer was absent, there was no treasurer’s report. Floy did remind everyone that dues are overdue and payable immediately. Those whose dues are not paid before the May meeting will be dropped from membership. That meeting will be held May 18, 2002, at the People’s Bank in Walnut, Mississippi. Arch and Virginia Murphree will be in charge of refreshments, assisted by new member Lynn Burrell. Our program for May will be given by Dr. Bruce Panuska of the Department of Geosciences at Mississippi State University.
As a fundraiser, Arch Murphree announced that we will have a quarterly raffle. Next month, he will bring an item that will be raffled off. Members will have two months to sell tickets on that item, and then the drawing will be held the third month.
We will need a field trip leader to plan field trips for the time after we start having all of our meetings in Tupelo. In the meantime, if anybody has an idea of a place where we can go on a field trip, they should say so.
Ruby Marshall reported on a field trip that they went on with the Huntsville, Ala. club. They hunted for garnets in the Talledega National Forest near Ashland, Ala. There are garnet mines all over the county, and there is gold there, too.
Rena Everett, Stamp Chair, announced that the Murphrees had given her lots of stamps at the meeting. She encouraged others to bring stamps to her next month. She is going to send in
a package of stamps to the Southeast Federation
Stamp Chairman very soon. She will send more stamps as they become available. These donations of stamps will make us eligible for a drawing that
the Federation will have for a scholarship to either Wildacres or William Holland next year.
Bill Hawkins announced that he and Floy have put advertisements for the club and announcements about the meetings on the television stations in Tupelo and in all of the papers there. Arch and Virginia had a great article in their paper. Floy had printed up notices about the May meeting for members to put in their local papers. Bill also announced that the featured gemstone for May is emerald.
Susan Curry, co-historian, announced that they are collecting again for the 2002-2003 scrapbook. If anyone has clippings, photos or other things that would be appropriate for the club scrapbook, he should give them to Susan or to Mary Reed.
The Nugget editor, Sandy Grych, announced that she has nearly all of the kinks worked out of the program to e-mail the newsletter to all members who have e-mail capability. Floy encouraged all members to read John Wright’s excellent article on meteorites in The Nugget, April issue. Also, Sandy encouraged members to write their own articles for inclusion in the newsletter.
Rena Everett announced that the Memphis Archaeological and Geological Society’s annual show will be next weekend and that also the I-Max in Memphis is showing a movie on caves, which is reported to be very interesting.
Rena also announced shows at Tannehill State Park in Bessemer, Ala. on June 1-2, the Weinman Mineral Museum in Cartersville, Ga. on June 8, and Gulfport Mississippi club show (usually) on June 15-16. There is also a show in Marietta, Ga. on May 10-12.
It was decided that November 16, 2002, will be youth day. The program that day will be totally youth oriented. There will probably be different stations where our young people can participate in different activities designed especially for them. It should be great fun. We should encourage all of our young members and prospective members to be present (at least) that day. On this date, the young people will decide on a name for their group.
All suggestions for a club logo should be in well before the September meeting. Before the September meeting, Floy will send copies of all suggestions to all members by snail mail. At the September meeting, members will vote for the one they think is best. The top four that are chosen will again be presented to the membership, and in October we will vote on a definitive logo that will be used on name tags, patches, etc. There was inconclusive conversation about the club mascot. There will be more on that later.
Bill and Floy will be looking for a good (and free) place for us to meet in Tupelo.
The business meeting was adjourned at 1:55 p.m. so that members could enjoy the fantastic spread presented by our hosts. After filling our plates, members returned to the meeting area to watch the video Collecting Earth’s Natural Treasures and enjoy their snacks. After the video was over, members were told the results of the “Blind” Silent Auction that had been held. Members waited excitedly to see whether they had bought something really good or whether they had won a “booby prize.” Everyone seemed satisfied with what they won, and the club treasury is more than $42 richer after this fun activity. Many thanks to Arch Murphree for all of his fundraising ideas. After the silent auction, the drawing for door prizes was held. Arch Murphree had furnished four boxes of assorted rocks and minerals, and there were four happy winners.
Respectfully submitted,
Rena Everett, Secretary
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Family Vacation The day I touched the clouds
By Sandra Grych
“What is all of that white stuff?” I asked as I tried to peer out over the dashboard of the front window of my Uncle Wally and Aunt Neet’s Nash. My Aunt Neet (short for Anita) looked up from the road map into the fog surrounding the car and replied, “Clouds.”
“Clouds?” I said, “Clouds are in the sky. Are we that high up?” My dad, who was driving, quickly chimed in, “We are in the Rocky Mountains.”
My aunt responded to my request to roll down the passenger side window so I could stick out my hand to touch the haze. In a few minutes, I opened my little leatherette souvenir diary and recorded in pencil: “Today I touched the clouds.”
I was eight years old and on a family vacation with my aunt, uncle, cousin, dad and brother. (My mother had died a year earlier.) We rumbled through nine different states from Wisconsin to Colorado and Wyoming.
Those two weeks mark the birth of my interest in rockhounding. We visited the Yellowstone National Park, Rocky Mountains, Bad Lands, Black Hills and the flat cornfields of Iowa. We saw snow in June, tall mountains with steep cliffs, geysers, boiling mucky holes in the ground, Old Faithful, Mt. Rushmore and deserty-looking plains covered with red rocks.
We also met a little old man in the Black Hills who sold brown paper bags of rocks out of the trunk of his car. My father had met the man on a previous trip to South Dakota. Daddy was anxious to track down the aging rockhound again so he could buy individual bags of rocks for each child.
As I saw my father quickly move toward the man’s old gray coupe, I thought, “Rocks? Why would I want a bag of rocks?”
He returned with a smile, handing each of us our own bag of specimens. I unenthusiastically peeked into the bag. To my surprise, some of the rocks were stunningly beautiful. They weren’t the plain old dull colored stones we found around home in Northeastern Wisconsin.
My favorites were the rose quartz and mica. My brother John’s rose quartz was a deeper pink color than mine. But mine was bigger. (That’s important to a kid.) The mica fascinated me, as I’d gently peel off layer by layer.
My dad knew what he was doing. Those three brown paper bags of rocks kept three antsy children busy for hours and days in our car ride home.
Eventually, my little bag of rocks was housed in a small wooden crate in the basement of our house. Soon other rocky treasures joined them - treasures gathered from other family vacations, a collection that began on a trip when I touched the clouds.
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Matthew Huber receives scholarship
NMGMS junior member Mattehw Huber (right) recieved the A. G. Cook awrd at the MGMS show in Jackson in February. Matthew is pictured with Mr. Cook's son, Stephen Cook, at the show.
Places to visit this summer
June 1-2
Tannehill State Park
Bessemer, AL
(near Birmingham)
Sat, June 8, 10:00-4:30
Rockfest
Weinman Mineral Museum
Cartersville, GA
June 15-16
Rock Show
Rice Pavilion, Gulfport, MS
Ongoing
Movie about caves
Pink Palace at the I-Max
Memphis, TN
North Mississippi Gem & Mineral Society
Meeting Schedule
Saturday, May 18 1 p.m.
People's Bank,
Walnut, Mississippi
Saturday, June 15 1 p.m.
Program Pending
Saturday, July 20 1 p.m.
Program Pending
Saturday, August 24 (tentative)
Picnic with MGMS at the Petrified Forest
Flora, MS
Saturday, Sept. 21
Rainwater Observatory,
French Camp, MS
Saturday, Oct. 19
Lignite Mine
Chocataw County, MS
Saturday, Nov. 16 (tentative)
Youth Day
Saturday, Dec. 21 (tentative)
Christmas Party
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