Desert Messenger

32 www.DesertMessenger.com February 5, 2014 8x12 $19.95, 8x16 $29.95 where I also heated sad irons to iron our clothes and to heat water in a teakettle for washing dishes and to take baths in our Number 3 galvanized tub. Our neighbors had told us that ironwood couldn't be chopped with an axe. Instead, they suggested we use an 8-pound sledgehammer. So, when hungry men asked for food, with my little boy on my hip I would ask if they could help me by breaking up some wood for my cook stove. I pointed to the wood- pile out back and told them about the sledgehammer. Soon they were back saying they had fi nished HOBOS FROM PAGE 20 ROCKS FROM PAGE 12 the job so I handed them a plate of food and a big cup of water. Later I would go out to retrieve the utensils from under the apricot tree and to get a couple pieces of wood for the stove. Oftentimes the wood had not been touched. I supposed that some hungry men had just gone on their way, perhaps to another house where they might get an easier job or not be asked to work at all. I made my own bread and usually had a pot of stew or beans cook- ing on the stove. We didn't have a lot, but I always saved some back to share with someone who might be hungry. It got to the point that hardly a day passed that we didn't have the tap, tap, tap on our kitch- en door. I noticed that they didn't go next door and I didn't hear other folks mention how many hungry men were coming to their house asking for something to eat. I will always remember a par- ticularly shaggy and dirty man who asked for something to eat. He ap- peared too weak to work, so I gave him a plate of food. Later, as I was walking to the Post Offi ce, I noticed some biscuits in a bush followed by a trail of radishes and then a plate of beans turned upside down that had been stomped on. I was stunned. That was my plate and radishes from my garden. I went home in tears. Charles took me by the hand and walked me out to our corner fence- post. He told me that not all hobos were alike and that some are truly in need. Then he pointed to a bold- ly written mark on the fencepost. He explained that the mark on our fencepost signifi ed that the lady at this house will always give you something to eat. That way, other hobos passing through Quartzsite did not need to go from house to house knocking on doors. Dave Scott up at Scott's Store had heard about my discarded biscuits and when I told him I still felt sorry for the many hungry men, he agreed and said that the word HOBO came from the phrase, Has Occupation, But Out-of-work. We don't have hobos knocking on our doors any more and the mark of the hobo is a voice from the past. Many, many goodhearted people in Quartzsite willingly share their time, food, surplus, and money in order to help feed and clothe the less fortunate. Tom Brokaw often refers to the people of the "Greatest Generation" as those who had or had members of their own families who at one time or another had an occupa- tion but out-of-work. God bless those many goodhearted people all across America. amulets set in gold adorned the crowns of Aztec and Mixtec Kings. Turquoise forms in various colors. Blues are created because of more copper in the mix, while greens are produced from an excess of alumi- num. An extra amount of zinc will yield a yellow-green color, better known as apple green. The other colors in a turquoise stone are called "matrix", and come from the surrounding host rock. Typically the host rock is rust-colored, black, or brown. The black matrix is usually from iron pyrite, the brown matrix is from iron oxide, and yellowish or reddish brown matrix comes from rhyolite. The blues are characteristic of turquoise mines in Arizona and New Mexico, while greens and apple greens pre- dominately come from Nevada. The majority of North American turquoise mines have been deplet- ed or closed, but Kingman tur- quoise and several of the beautiful varieties from Lander County in Nevada are still being mined today. Some of the most rare and expen- sive turquoise varieties are Lander Blue, Bisbee, Morenci, Blue Gem, Carico Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Cerrillos. Because the U.S. mines are mostly depleted or already closed, turquoise from other parts of the world, particularly Tibet, is becoming more common for use in jewelry. Approximately 80% of all the turquoise on the market world- wide today is Chinese or Tibetan. On the market, turquoise is legally described as natural or stabilized. Natural turquoise is hard enough to be cut, polished and set as it is naturally taken out of the mine. Less than 3% of all the turquoise on the market worldwide is natu- ral. Stabilized turquoise is infused with a clear epoxy resin to give it strength, hardness, and colorfast- ness. Turquoise has been stabi- lized since ancient times. Native SEE ROCKS PAGE 41

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