Digging for Diamonds

When I was in 5th grade, I was picked up at 2:00 everyday in the afternoon to go to the middle school for 7th period math. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I had an extra long school day: 7:45 am - 3:30 pm. I had approximately 20-30 minutes of "study hall" in the middle so. I could finish some work, but it made for long days. 

The bus driver who picked me up drove bus number 63. I blogged about this bus and driver specifically in another post. What I wanted to share today has to do with a specific memory from that year. Right before spring break, I was talking to Mr. Bill, the bus driver, and he was telling me about his plans to go to Arkansas and visit a diamond mine. I was intrigued. He told me if he found one, he was going to keep it. If he found two, he was going to give me one. Little did I know as a 5th grader, the odds of actually finding a diamond at the mine are pretty slim. 

After spring break, I returned to school and excitedly waited to be picked up and taken to the middle school. We talked about our spring breaks. I don't remember what I did, but it probably wasn't anything special. He told me unfortunately he didn't get to go to the diamond mine. 

***

This past weekend, I got to go. 

I was talking to a friend and she told me about a trip they were planning to the diamond mine. Jokingly, she asked me if I wanted to go. I seriously did! I talked to my husband about it and we decided to go. We were going to leave Friday and then head home Saturday. I would never have made such an impromptu decision like this if we didn't have friends to prod us. I mean, it's a 4-hour drive away. We could have gone as a DINK couple years ago. But we didn't. Instead, we decided to work on our house and learn how to renovate instead. Not a bad trade, but a different trade. Construction costs have practically doubled now since pre-Covid, so no real regrets there.

Sadly, our friends didn't get to join us because they got Covid during the middle of the week and weren't feeling great. My husband and I ended up taking our two kids on a less than 24 hour long trip to Arkansas and back.

I got to check off a location on my bucket list after 20 years. 

If you actually want to dig for diamonds, taking young children along with you is really difficult for a number of reasons.

- it's hot

- there's quite a bit of walking involved

- they mess up your work

I overheard a father talking to his son at the washing station because his son had dumped the batch of rocks his father wanted to keep. That wasn't fun for either party. 

Needless to say, we didn't dig very much and we didn't find a diamond, but the overall experience was fun and new. My daughter walked around with us, poked around in the dirt, and washed out some buckets of rock with us. My son ate cheerios half the time because he had refused to eat breakfast and played on my cell phone for the other half of the time. He had no interest in poking in the dirt with a bucket and a shovel. I actually enjoyed people watching for a while when we were resting in the shade and commiserating with their parenting struggles. 

It was hot.

Am I sad we didn't find a diamond? Not really. The realist in me was thinking what a terrible idea it was to bring two children ages 4 and 2 to walk around looking at dirt on a hot summer day. The dreamer in me was thinking how surreal it was I was able to fulfill this visit 20 years later.