The Big Show
Last Saturday started off an exciting rarity for me. I had talked my wife into joining me on a trip to Letha, Idaho where there was a gem show. I was not familiar with Letha but figured it was a small town that would have a nice little show in the park; I was guessing there would be around a half dozen venders. That morning we loaded the greatest kid in the world, Andy (my eight month old son), in the car and headed out towards Emmett, Idaho. After about an hour we were entering Letha a very small town a few miles west of Emmett. Immediately we saw signs directing us to the rock show. Within a minute we had passed the show and were already on our way out of town. Shocked that we missed it, I turned the car around and returned to the show. I couldn’t believe it; there was only one vender. I immediately felt like I wasted my morning.
Since we were already there I figured that should take a look and see if there was anything exciting. There was a good assortment of rocks but what caught my eye was a thunder egg that I did not recognize; I love thunder eggs. I asked what the price of the egg was and was given a very nice price. I opened the wallet and paid for it right away. The vender told me the egg was from middle Oregon.
After I paid for my rock the vender introduced herself as Margaret Stallknecht. Margaret runs the Stallknecht-Morgan Museum; this museum is a traveling natural history museum. She also is involved in rock clubs and leads field trips. I signed Margaret’s guest book and she said that she would call me about her field trips. I am looking forward to joining one of her field trips in the future.
As I was leaving the feeling of wasted time faded away. The one vender show introduced me to another rock collecting friend and provided me with the desire to get home and cut my thunder egg. When I did get home I cut the egg and found an incredible center. The one vender show was definitely worth my time.
UPDATE: The Big Show
I was recently informed that there was more than one dealer at the show. Margaret had introduced me to Betty Hare who has written a couple of books “Fossils of Southwestern Idaho” and “Idaho’s Dinosaur Days”. I did not realize that she was a dealer also. Thanks for the update Betty.
