Last month I decided to visit just one of the 40 sites available to see fossils, gems, jewelry and beads! It was the Tucson Gem Show. I had always heard people travelled long distances to arrive in Tucson to buy their jewelry-making beads, and I guess others were looking for their special rock.
I had never seen so many rocks in one place! Some people wanted the perfect crystal for their special meditative place; others wanted a fossil or rock to add to their own collection. For me, I wanted to look at all the jewelry, choice of beads, fossils, gems, and I particularly loved the geodes. Some of them, HUGE! I cannot imagine cracking a large rock open and seeing its inside full of color and beauty!
There I was years ago cracking Herkimer Diamonds in upstate NY; finding little “diamonds”. I was always wishing I would find something as grand as that pictured-above geode! Yikes! I probably would have been in shock even if I had discovered one of the smaller ones! (Still gigantic compared to my Herkimer Diamonds!)
There were 39 other sites around the city of Tucson to visit more of the Tucson Gem Show ….another year, another site; maybe. Although I understand some sites I will never be able to enter because I am not a big-time buyer and would need a special pass. That’s okay…these rocks were good enough for me to observe. If I had discovered them, I would have kept them … I am not one to buy a rock. I thought the fun was more in the digging and discovery of one, just one! And then I would keep it!
Yet who knows? Someday when I least expect it, a rock at a gem show may say to me, “This beauty needs a home!” (I remain open-minded, and maybe I should keep digging.)
The Tucson Gem Show is an annual event. Let me know if you are ever in the neighborhood checking out the rocks!