What GPAA Mathews, NC Chapter Means to Me

To explain what the Mathews, NC chapter means to me, I have to take you back 43 years.

I was 9 or 10 years old at the time.  I grew up in Connersville, Indiana.  A small town of about 20,000 people in South Central Indiana.  A buddy and I were riding out bikes through neighborhood about a mile from our homes one Summer.  We road to the end of a dead end street and discovered an utility access road.  This was long before ATV’s were even thought of.

We decided to follow it and see where it lead.  The gravel road soon gave way to a grass covered road.  You could see where a truck had driven though it recently, by the matted down grass.  So we pedaled on.  After about a half hour of pedaling, we found ourselves by a pretty active creek.  So we laid our bikes on the ground and sat for a while on the creek bank, watching the water flow by.  (We are talking about a small town in Southern Indiana.  This passed to high entertainment for 10 year olds!)

After about 10 minutes, we got back on our bikes and plodded on.  We soon came around a rock outcropping and found ourselves on another gravel road that took us out to the state highway and to the south side of town.  Whenever we weren’t swimming in my backyard pool or playing a pickup game of baseball, we would ride this trail.  Our Moms would pack us a lunch and off we would go.

On one particular hot August day we were riding our trail and stopped by the creek to eat our lunch.  The sun was high over head and we were sweaty from the ride, so we decided to take off our basketball shoes and socks and wade into the creek.  I had gone about 2 feet from the bank when I stepped on something sharp.  After saying a word that would have gotten my mouth washed out with soap from my Mother, I reached down and picked it up.

It was a good sized rock.  This was no ordinary rock though.  It had GOLD in it!  I held it in my hand, unable to speak, and just looked at the shinny substance in the rock.  Finally  my buddy asked if I was alright.  I came out of my trance and answered that, Yea, I was fine.  I walked over to him and proudly showed him the rock and must have felt like prospectors before me.  I shouted, “I found GOLD!”

We put our shoes and socks on and quickly road home.  All the way there, I had visions of buying a new Huffy 10 speed bike with my new found wealth.   Never mind that Southern Indiana isn’t exactly a hotbed for gold.  Never mind, that I didn’t own the creek.  Never mind that in 1966 or 67 that it was still against the law for the average person to won gold.  Where there was one piece of gold, there had to me more!

When I got home, I couldn’t wait to show my Mother my new found wealth.  She was less enthusiastic than I was.  Finally my Father got home and I showed him.  My Father looked at it, and said that IF it was gold, that it wasn’t very much.  I was thinking of that Huffy 10 speed I was going to buy.

My Father said he would take it to work the next day and show it to someone who knew about gold.  I reluctantly gave the rock up and let him take it.  I could barely wait for him to come home from work.  As soon as I heard his car pull up, I was out the door.  He handed me my prized possession and told me it was Pyrite.  Now I had heard that Platinum was more than Gold, so Pyrite must be between the two.  Maybe even enough to buy a Schwin 10 speed!

He burst my short lived bubble by telling me Pyrite was worthless!  What?  Worthless?  No bike?  Yes, he said, no bike!

After I graduated from college and I was out on my own, I bought a metal detector.  Every so often, I would take it out of the closet and go to a park, or anywhere I thought I could find something.  I found a lot of cans, pull tabs (back in the day that you actually pulled them off of cans.)  However, nothing of real value.  I was living in southern Minnesota and any nice day is welcome and a good excuse to be outdoors.

I read somewhere that if you want to be successful in something, find a person who is where you want to be and have him mentor you.  I’m not sure if it was Andrew Carnegie or Donald Trump, who said that.  Not every successful person wants to share his or her secrets to success, but there are some who will.  I have done this my entire life.  Whether it was engineering, real estate or sales.  I would seek out the top producer and try to imitate him/her.

I'm now 53 years old.  Due to an on the job accident, I landed in a wheelchair.  I’ve worked since I turned 16 and not really used to not working.  I had watched both my Father and Grandfather go downhill after they retired. I was bound and determined that was not going to happen to me!  I had always been into model railroading, so I had that to “tinker” with.  But I needed something that would get me out of the house.  By now, I was living in North Carolina, where we are blessed with moderate to good weather all year long.

One night back in September of 2010, I was laying in bed flipping thought the channels on TV.  You think with all the channels of cable TV, that I could find something to watch.  I stopped on a channel and there was this guy, hamming it up, talking about gold!  He was entertaining, so I stopped on the channel.  Commercial, it said that GOLD FEVER will be right back.  Hmmmm, Gold Fever!

I watched the show and I had what I call an “Ah Ha” moment.  You know the one.  Where it seems that the light bulb over heard turns on and you say to yourself,  “Ah Ha!”   That was a “Ah Ha” moment for me.  Become a gold prospector!  Okay, I wasn’t gong to go sluicing in a river, but I didn’t see why I couldn’t do just about anything else.  I certainly can process dirt.  I can metal detect with my power wheelchair and metal detector.  Other than getting wet, I knew I could do.

First step was that this guy, Tom Massie, talked about joining the GPAA. (Gold Prospectors Association of America.) I got on my laptop besides my bed and logged onto the site.  I poured over the website with like a hungry dog looking at his bowl.  That seemed like a good place to start.  I got the membership package and watched each video, twice.  I had watched people pan before, but I had never actually done it.

I had ordered some pay dirt over eBay while I waited for my membership package to arrive.  After watching the GPAA panning video, I thought it was time for me to try my hand.  They talk about “Gold Fever“, but you have to experience it on your own.  When I panned my first pan of dirt, I looked down and I saw that flake, it brought back the exact same feeling I had when I was 10 years old!  “I discovered Gold!”  Of course, one flake in your pan makes you want to discover another, and another….

Now go back to my statement about finding someone to mentor you where you want to be.  What I have discovered at the Mathews, NC Chapter of the GPAA, isn’t someone.  It an entire group of some ones!  All coming together to share their wealth of knowledge on finding gold or gems!  Not one person has pulled a Daffy Duck.  (Mine, all mine.  You can’t have any!  It’s all mine, mine, mine!)  They are all eager and happy to share with you.  Their triumphs, even the times they came up empty.  As well as their tall tales.  (Prospector tell tall takes?  Never!)

The Matthew, NC chapter is a growing chapter and as in everything, you need to grow to thrive.  It’s membership is active and it’s officers have a great vision for the future.  From what I understand, it’s one of the largest groups within GPAA.  It outgrew one building that they met in, and about to out grow another one!  I can say that I honestly look forward to the meeting each month!

I liken it to a small southern church social.  Everyone coming together for a good time with a common goal.  Glenn Coleman, isn’t the preacher so much as he is the ring master!  You get 50+ people together in one place, and fun can overtake the purpose.  He does a great job of keeping everyone focused.  Most everyone comes early to the meetings and stay well past them being over.

I have to end this by saying as someone in a wheelchair, people often ask me how I stay active.  I tell them that I am, “A modern day Gold prospector.”  They stammer and can’t comprehend how someone in a wheelchair can search for gold.    I always tell them, that I belong to a great organization and have golden friends