This morning as I waded in the clear water of the Gulf of Mexico I couldn't shake the eerie feeling. There was a haze in the sky and the Northeast winds were strong but something was so different from only a few days ago. Over the Labor day holiday weekend there were so many people at the beach and swimming in the water that it was difficult to make your way through them. The children ran wild with complete abandon shooting here and there like ballistic missiles and the water was splashing as an uncountable number of people tried to get the most out of the last of summer. It seemed strange to watch them, each intent on his or her own fashion of beach experience with some laying down in the water, some throwing balls of the muddy sand at each other, and some sitting there and just taking it all in seated in their beach chair. The strangest of all was the fact that they had dressed to kill wearing all their gold and diamonds to sit in the surf and splash about without any thought about losing things.

My wife and I waded along to do our best to avoid the pitfalls of running children as we had an early go at harvesting the golden offerings that were so freely made by the people. One woman who had a diamond on her finger as big as an acorn asked me a question and I told her that the water shrinks peoples hands about two ring sizes and they regularly loose any rings that they wear in the water and she seemed greatful as she said she would remove it. One man grinning who saw my wife metal detecting walked up to display a wide gold necklace which he said simply tumbled along the bottom by him. I talked to several who told me about losing the keys to their car, their wristwatch, or other jewelry and I made a good effort to try to attempt to recover them but the large ground swells prevented me from getting very far out where most were lost.

We came to a stretch of beach where we have found some nice things before and I looked very hard and pushed into the crashing breakers as I was just sure I would find something good here but it did not happen for me. My wife of course had a large grin on her face as she walked up to me to display a new matching set of wedding and engagement rings with five diamonds. She was surprised as they came up in one scoop(that has never happened to me!). It was time to go home and tomorrow would be the big day as the people would be gone and the hunters would be in the water.

We got up extra early to try to get a step ahead of the others who would doubtless be there and drove to the beach in the darkness of night and arrived without even a hint of the morning dawn on the horizon. Sure enough there they were with detectors strapped on already and on their way into the water in the darkness. In my hurry I forgot to put on my finds bag and to wear the string that I put around my neck to clip the rings onto but "I" was first into the water. It is always strange how the water can seem very warm in the evenings and cold in the early morning but I waded out into the darkness and outside of the sand bar into the deeper water.

Thanks to the Fisher folks who got my CZ20 fixed in time I had a tone ID to use as I searched the bottom for "pulltab" signals which may indicate gold and on my second signal there it was! I can remember the excitement as I worked neck deep in the dark waters to dig out the source of the signal. Finally I got the large scoop full of sand up to the top of the water and sloshed it back and forth to see it melt down slowly. In the darkness(yes I forgot to bring my light also!) I felt around to discover a nice 14k gold ring laying on the bottom of the scoop. I was feeling good now!, and it was still dark and the day held much promise as I searched the bottom for another signal.

As much as I hunted and I covered much ground I couldn't find anything but coins and the only other pulltab signal that I received was sure enough a pulltab. Meanwhile my wife who was working the shallower water had dipped up a small scoop that contained, one pulltab, one dime, and one nice gold ring! The dime was wedged very hard into the middle of the gold ring and I wondered how that could happen? Meanwhile one of the other guys was hunting near us and I walked over and asked him how he was doing. He looked a little down and said that he had not found any gold. I told him I was just checking to see if he had found MY 24 inch gold chain with the Kugerand hanging on it. That was what I was hoping to blunder across but it did not happen. As I walked a few steps back to my wife and he took a few more steps down the knee deep water I turned my head to see him with a smile on his face as he displayed a find that I had just walked over several times. He showed me a 14k heavy gold chain with a gold crucifix hanging on it. My mind flashed back to yesterday as I had seen a heavyweight man wearing one just like it.

Over the weekend we found five gold rings(not plated) and other silver rings and things not to mention the diamonds in our annual harvest of summer.

The waters off our beaches have received their golden due again this year and I estimated that about $50,000 in gold and jewels were freed by their owners to sink into the soft sands of the Gulf and only God knows how much gold has never been recovered off this beach! I will hunt these waters year around and you will find me there on the very coldest and windy days of the year because I know that only a very tiny fraction of the gold of the Gulf was ever recovered and the rest will be lost forever unless I can scoop it out someday. I see the forlorn look of some beach hunters as they tell me that the beach has been hunted out and you cannot find anything but a few pennies and I smile because I know better, but who will listen to the rambling of a old man?