On a Mission

I'm on a mission to find my missing diamond. It's not a particularly valuable diamond, but it has sentimental value. I found it at the Crater of Diamonds in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, on a Girl Scout outing in eighth grade.

A few days ago I completed a quiz on Facebook entitled "How Arkansas Are You?" The first question was "Have you ever hunted for diamonds or crystals?" I was quick to check that one off.

Helen Berg took our Scout troop to the Crater of Diamonds in 1958 or 1959. Although most of us turned up lots of pieces of quartz, I was the only one who found an honest to goodness diamond. I never had it cut because it had a piece of carbon in it, but I did have it made into a necklace. The last time I remember seeing it, it was tangled up with a lot of other old jewelry in a drawer somewhere.

I started my diamond hunt after I sent the "Arkansas" quiz to my high school classmates. Virginia responded that she would like to see a picture of my diamond if I still had it. So the search began.

I've gone through lots of jewelry boxes and drawers that looked a lot like this one, filled with tangled costume jewelry and old buttons. In one drawer I uncovered a $50 U.S. Savings Bond that Hunter won in 1986 for second place in an essay contest. It's now worth more than $80.

I found these photographs of Brent and LBeau taken at about the same age. We've always said that Brent was a chip off the old block.

Mostly I've stirred up lots of dust and a few memories, but so far no diamond. So the search continues.