Page 23 - SparHawk Maine Tourmaline

a significant number of crys- tals the size of thumbs and index fingers. The really nice ones Jeff wraps in newspa- pers. Jeff pulls out a wrist- size big green tourmaline. I film its removal. Jeff brushes it off, turns it around. It’s all green with a brown crust on the back. Before he wraps it in newspaper, he looks at the bottom, holds it up, we are both surprised to see it’s also a huge watermelon crystal.
The watermelon surface is bigger than the size of an apple cut in half.
Jeff and Ray quietly
continue then Jeff calls me
over. He says you might like
to get a picture of this. It was
a particularly fine, long crys-
tal with three breaks in it. The sections were glowing green. For ref- erence I had a two and a half dollar gold piece (which I did not win in a poker game). I set it next to the crystal. Even in the shadows, the crystal had its own inner light. The big crystal and several other crystals were removed, wrapped, and placed in the bucket.
Gem mining and even watching it is addictive. There’s a casino like rush as stones are pulled out as crystals and their colors are re- vealed.
I was cold. I had a cold. I didn’t feel good. I kept thinking I’ll stay five more minutes. There would be more, then more, then some- thing spectacular would appear. Another half hour would go by. I’d intended on staying just an hour. It was three and a half hours before I left and Jeff and Ray were still at it. It was a good day at the Havey.
And yes, the Sox won the World Series that night against the Cardinals. Way to go, Boston!
Ralph Pride, Cross Jewelers, Portland, Maine
Jeff and Ray
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