The Social and Psychological Facets of Rock Shopping

Although I am the one who usually befriends strangers and asks them a million questions, Meg made a friend at the gem swap at the Missouri Mine which is an abandoned mine in Park Hills. She has been wanting to get the next level of info for a while on welding metals for jewelry and sanding/polishing gem stones. We happened upon a 71 year-old man who had a table. Meg noticed a stone he had and commented on it. He started to talk about how he is weeding out some of his gem collection because he had a heart attack last year at a gem show and is thinking about his own mortality. Him saying that within 30 seconds of meeting us seemed like the type of thing that always happens to people like us when we talk to strangers and we followed him down the rabbit hole. He told us that he taught lapidary at a high school in Joplin for his entire career and now just does this. He seemed like a sweet, well-intentioned, down to earth kind of guy. He also gave Meg lots of information and handouts that he brought with him. He said that if Meg joined his rock club for $12, he will further mentor her for free and show her how to use all the machines needed to get stones fancy. We talked to him for about an hour and a half and then Meg decided to buy the piece she noticed at the beginning, which was the most expensive thing he had to sell. It was a huge hunk of quartz with all kinds of crystals that he said he has had for 30 years and hates to part with, but in light of his mortality and knowing that his family does not know what he knows about rocks, he thought he was best to sell it now. He pointed out "you can't take it with you," then hedged by telling us a story about burying a fellow rock enthusiast with a giant stone he gifted to him, then proceeded to show us the ones with which he did indeed hope to be buried.

Meg buying the piece made me happy, especially since I have been trying to not buy superfluous things for a bit and I get to enjoy this without parting with the money.  The guy was so old school he didn't have a credit card machine, but the neighboring booth retailer who had been witness to our conversation graciously offered to allow Meg to pay on square and then pay him in cash. Another retailed gave us a box to carry the crystal and said she had been eyeing the piece for the past 3 shows. I told Meg that, if it were me, I would definitely join his club and be commuting to Joplin once a month for tutoring. When we left him and were going to the car, Meg said to me that he is either just a really nice man or the best salesman ever. He's probably a bit of both to be fair...
— at Missouri Mines State Historic Site.