Last year, at this same time, I had heart-breaking task of reporting on a terrible car wreck. This crash took place at the start of a huge I-94 construction project in Kalamazoo. The crash claimed the lives of two of our club members. Ray Harvey, Sr. and Ray Harvey, Jr., as well as their little dog. News of this fiery crash really shocked the club to the core. I really miss those two guys and I am certain their families are still hurting, as do many of you and I.

        This spring I have yet another sad note to bring to the club. Just a couple weeks ago Tom Strumberger came over to my shop and was shopping for an underwater detector. For the last couple of years Tom had been marveling at the success of our water hunters at finding gold. Quite frankly, it is mind boggling. Tom first came on a fact finding mission and he gathered up lots of brochures to study.

       Tom made several trips to the store with questions and he did some hands-on comparing. Tom shared with me some of the places that he was looking forward to detecting with his new detector. It was clear to me that Tom was launching out on a new treasure hunting adventure.

       When he was ready to make the purchase, Tom picked out one of the Pro/Scoops and wanted me to also put his club dues on his debit card. I ran the transaction through, then handed Tom his receipt. He noticed right away that I had overlooked his club dues. I told Tom not to worry, I would send John Dudley a check for the dues and he could pay me back at the meeting. Tom was fine with that. He shook my hand and said, "See you at the meeting, Al."

       I learned a few days later that Tom took his own life. Yes, I know, it really takes the wind out of your sails. I didn't go to the visitation or the memorial service because I wanted to live in disbelief a while longer. What caused this mountain man to snap? I'll never know, but I wished I understood what he was dealing with, because I would have loved to help him. For heaven's sake, if you are not in a position to reach out to God, reach out to someone who can, for the sake of your friends and your family.

      If you cannot picture Tom, he was the tall guy that made the beautiful, handcrafted knives. He liked to wear a nice western style hat and wear western boots. Tom had a deep voice and to listen to him reminded me of the former presidential candidate, Fred Thompson.

      Thomas A. (CHOPPER) Strumberger Sr., age 65, of Middleville, passed away April 25, 2008. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Linda Lee Strumberger; one daughter, Lisa Carlson and one son, Thomas A. (Corinne) Strumberger Jr., both of Middleville; three grand-daughters, Chelsey, Alecia, and Kayla. Tom was a veteran of the US Army. He was employed at Steelcase and retired after 33 years of service. An avid hunter, he was a Harley Davidson enthusiast, loved metal detecting, handcrafted knives and custom car painting. Tom was a member of the American Mountain Man Association, North American Hunting Club and the NRA.

        Spring is a wonderful time of year. It is a time of new beginnings and, after the terrible winter that we just endured, spring has been long awaited! I am sure you noticed the massive destruction to many of our roads! I have been welcoming many of our friends back from their winter in the south. I haven't failed to mention how they missed one of the worst winters that I remember in my 57 years. Their usual reply is, "That is what we have been hearing."

        At no time during this winter could you really say we had a terrible blizzard, it was just one long, cold, hard, dreary winter.

        Sure, I remember the winter blizzard of 1967 when we were buried in tons of snow. At the time, I was working for my father at his RV dealership. We had three huge pole barns, two for our RV service center and one used as a giant indoor showroom. During that storm we took our tractors and filled these buildings with new travel trailers and motor homes.

        I was part of a big family with 2 brothers and 5 sisters. My mother and older sisters helped to round up all of the bedding that we had to prepare the RV's for guests.

        We had just started selling a lesser known line of snow mobiles called 'Mallard Snow Wings.' I remember many of the snow mobile fans that we dealt with made fun of the Mallards, calling them, 'Lame Ducks.' We had a good selection but they were made fun of and frankly they didn't sell well at all.

        We gassed them all up and headed out in a caravan towards U.S. 131. Half the group headed north and the other south on the expressway in a blinding blizzard. Most of us were in high school or slightly older so we thought we were invincible and we didn't have any sense of danger. Actually there wasn't any danger of being hit by a car or truck because all traffic had came to a standstill. Even with four wheel drive you were stuck! We looked for headlights and anything that didn't look natural to investigate.

        We were not the only rescuers. The sheriff department also had a snowmobile team and one of the local snowmobile clubs was out in force. We hauled back as many stranded people as we could find and after the storm subsided we learned that everyone did a very complete job. My mother was the real hero in this story. She fed and cared for about 40 to 50 people for three to four days while the road crews reopened the highway and recovered their cars. Being a large family my parents purchased food in bulk and my mother raised ducks, chickens and quail. To this day, my mother has put in huge gardens and she both cans and freezes vegetables. At the time we had a large freezer and it only took these few days to nearly empty it.

        I asked Mom if she could remember some of the meals she prepared for our stranded guests. She could remember fixing turkey, duck and I seem to remember large trays of lasagna. We rounded up as many portable TVS and magazines as we could find. Mom saw to it that everyone had fresh towels and wash- cloths, soap and other toiletries. Because we had several overnight hookups for people staying during service trips to our business, we had a couple of heated bathrooms with showers.

        The service technicians came into work everyday, despite the fact that their work place was filled with RV's, housing the stranded motorists. We all stayed very busy clearing away house-sized snow drifts. There was actually so much snow that we really had no place to push it! In order to clear U.S. 131, if I remember right, they used giant truck-mounted snow throwers instead of blades.

        I remember going south towards Kalamazoo when they only had one lane open. Even then, you needed four-wheel drive.

        We passed an area where they had augured through a twenty foot high snow drift and, off to the side buried in the drift,was an abandoned auto that the snowplow had hit. I can still picture it-- it was a black sedan. Every car they came to had to be checked for victims.

        In a way I think it was exciting and we were really challenged by the storm. We received regular updates from the sheriff's department about which cars had been recovered and which roads would be open.

        Our sale's office was used by the families to contact loved ones and employers or employees by phone. I didn't realize it at the time, but all of these stranded folks had formed a bond with each other and exchanged names and addresses. Each one offered my mother payment for her hard work but, as I could have told them, she refused it soundly.

        A week or two after things were back to normal, a letter arrived addressed to my mother and the staff at Curtis Trailer Sales. It was a heart felt thank you letter signed by all of the guests and it included a sizable check. Of course it brought tears of emotion to her eyes It was a nice letter and I am sure my mother saved it. It would not surprise me if you found that envelope today containing that letter that you might find that check also.

        It was around ten years before we had another storm of that magnitude. However at that time, the area was better prepared for it and it didn't strike in the same way, catching so many off guard. Before anyone had any inkling of that storm coming, I had already loaded my family into a motor home and headed out for Florida. It was early evening and a warm tropical breeze was blowing across the lagoon and the palm branches swayed gently in the warm soft breeze.

        I was in 'Fort Wilderness,' the campground at Walt Disney World. What an awesome campground, by the way! I walked over to a pay phone that was cleverly camouflaged by live bamboo plants. I wanted to let Dad and Mom know that we had arrived safely. I faced the phone to dial the number with the world at my back. When the connection started ringing I turned around to find an armadillo right at my feet. I'm a Yankee so I know nothing about a cast iron rat! Does it bite? Is it poisonous? Should I run? Just as my father answered the phone, it slowly waddled off.

        This was the first I had heard about this latest blizzard. Dad told me that he had decided to get a head start on the snow removal. He waded through waist-deep snow to the large service building where we had our Jeep snowplow truck stored for the night. When he reached the shop door he put his key in the lock and as he turned the key he looked through the glass door at a mountain of snow. Then he looked up and saw the sky! The roof that had sheltered so many during the last blizzard would have killed many, had they been there at this time. Thank goodness we can leave winter behind us for now and rejoice in springtime beauty.

        The seeded hunt will be here before you know it! The hunt will be on May 18th and there will be camping on Friday, May 16th and Saturday, May 17th for all those interested. The fee for the spring hunt is $35.00 and, as usual, it is a members-only hunt. There will be a $5.00 late fee.

        This hunt will be loaded with silver! However, with silver prices going higher and higher, the club members voted to raise the hunt fee last fall. The new $35.00 fee will help us maintain the same amount of coins per hunter that we have come to love!

        The hunt-planning team is interested in having a kid's hunt again. However, they really need to know how many kids to plan for. So far, they tell me that the interest is very small. Do you plan on entering any kids or grand kids? We would like to know how many at, or before, this month's meeting!

        The Hunt Master and his prize coordinators, Greg Stonerock and Mike Walker, are ready to accept any hunt prize donations at the hunt! Donating something for a prize is not, nor has it ever been, mandatory in order to hunt. But keep in mind that the more prizes, the more prize tokens, and this all adds up to more fun! Donated items do not have to be costly. They can be something that you made yourself or something that you bought. Items can be new, or in some cases, used. How about some of you handy craft people making a folksy bird house adorned with natural items from the forest?

        Some of my favorite prizes, that I was lucky enough to find the tokens for in the past, were items that you may not think of. One year I won a bottle of Windex--- I used it! Let's see-- I have won a car wash mitt, a spring jacket, a handmade baby cradle, and a comb for bald guys!

        Maybe when you see those special clearance tables with inexpensive tools, you could find something for two or three bucks. Another idea would be to check out that BG&T surplus store down by Schoolcraft or one of the dollar stores -- there are lots of inexpensive possibilities.

        Your club board has some great plans for our 2008 Spring Hunt! There are many special events planned, like a special fellowship hunt that will be launched at 3:00 Saturday afternoon. That will be at a local huntsite to be announced. Then at 8pm Saturday evening, there will be a Buffalo nickel hunt. There will be a $5.00 fee for that special hunt.

        This year, the club's spring hunt will held at Tom and Jackie Latterner's home, located west of Kalamazoo on North 3rd street. Their address is 4339 N. 3rd Street, Kalamazoo MI. 49009

        The Sunday morning activities will start at 8:30 and all members are invited. First, there will be a club breakfast on the grounds (8:30). It sounds like this will be a continental breakfast with coffee, juice and donuts--- maybe more.

        At 9:00, we will have a short Sunday nondenominational church service with an ever-so-slight Baptist leaning. Your Bible teacher will be the not-so-reverend Al Holden! Hey, that's me! I have been a regular speaker at the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission for several years. Also, I have been a substitute Sunday School teacher for both adult and children's classes, so I can promise this message will be safe for all ages!

        Remember, everyone is welcome to attend the camping, the worship service, the breakfast, and the pot luck-- even if you don't plan to hunt!

        Our famous pot luck dinner will be held at 12:00, before the first hunt. As most of you know, we usually have this feast between the two main hunts, so you'd better make note. The kid's hunt starts at 11:00 am for those who are 12 years old and younger, just before lunch. Then, as I mentioned, the first main hunt starts at 1:30 pm. And the second big hunt will start at 3:00.

Well, it's official. I talked to Captain Gary Nichols today and once again Gary is donating that super, awesome prize of a Lake Michigan Charter Fishing Trip aboard the beautiful Miss Vicki!

Last year was a costly season for Gary and his beloved Charter fishing boat, Miss Vicki. This beautiful boat received her Coast Guard inspection last spring and she needed some minor tweaking. Then, near the end of the fishing season, Gary had some minor engine problems. Gary tells me that Miss Vicki has been updated and good to go! One of the new upgrades is the latest type of G.P.S. that tracks and records, by computer, the course traveled, marks productive fishing areas, and then the computer looks for repeatable patterns! Wow!

Just imagine, an 8-hour salmon fishing charter for the hunter who finds that one very special token, and three of his friends! It gets better! All the fishing gear is provided, as are the snacks and soft drinks! All you need to bring is soft-soled shoes, jacket, camera, sunglasses, and a valid Michigan fishing licence with a trout validation.

But wait, it gets even better! Your catch will be professionally cleaned and bagged! Don't forget to bring a cooler to carry your trophy fish home in.

Gary said that the best fishing has been in July and August, so you may want to keep that in mind.

Your fishing trip has a value of over $600.00! I raised the value from last year's figure of $500.00, even though I don't know if it has raised. But you can bet these gas prices have got to be pinching Gary pretty hard!

You will be on- board the beautiful 32' Trojan sport fishing boat "MISS VICKI". The vessel is a very stable six-ton craft with twin V-8 inboard engines. She is Coast Guard inspected and equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, including three marine radios, five electric down riggers, Lee outriggers, Loran location system, and two fish finders.

WOW! This is an adventure you will never forget! Is Captain Gary successful? We have the pictures to prove it, as well as a picture of this beautiful boat! The winner will contact Gary to set up the date and time. Thank you again, Gary! Just thinking about this donation raises goose bumps! Is this a great club with great members or what!

        There may be a few of you who question my honesty after telling you each month what a great meeting we had, month after month for the last 13 years. Well, to prove my straight forward-reporting, last month's meeting was a total bomb! Someone wanted the club board members to suggest a change in our Find of the Month rules. I'm sure I could find out who this person was, but I really don't want to know.

        The way we have the Find of the Month set up right now is like this: Let's say you are in Florida and you are not going to be coming back for a couple more months. You are detecting a beautiful white sand beach and you find an awesome treasure. You take a photo and send it to your buddy to enter it in the F.O.M. for you. That happened a few times but people didn't like it. This was because a picture can make a find look better or worse than it is. Oftentimes, we are left to guess the actual size of the item, unless the item is pictured with something to compare it to, revealing the scale.

        We voted to end picture entries, but the finder could mail the item to a trusted member who could enter it for them. I have to try real hard to find sympathy for someone who is detecting all winter in Florida, but we decided that was fair.

        However, the positive side to this rule was that it would help someone who was unable to attend the meeting because of things like a job shift change, sickness, injury or perhaps a family crisis. An example is Alan Randolph, who will not be back at the meetings for sometime because Linda needs round-the-clock attention. What if another family member spells him a couple hours from time-to-time and, to unload all that stress, he goes metal detecting and finds something. If he gets that item to me, I would consider it a high honor to enter it for Alan. Another example is Greg Stonerock who had a shift change at work. I'm so thankful that Greg has his job still. Tom Latterner is another one. Do you want to see who else I would do this for? Go look in a mirror.

        The way we are handling this now is fair, and to do the opposite would be unfair. Considering that, the decision should be a no-brainer after all. I think I have pieced this together. There is one of the club members about whom some of you are jealous. No matter how good your finds, he always seems to find something better. A few meetings back, this person had to be out of the area on business so his hunting buddy entered a couple things for him. You thought that this was your night because he was absent, but nonetheless he beat you!

        This is not Kindergarten and we are not small children. We need to act like grownups here. The kind of people whom I would most enjoy being in the club with are the ones who couldn't care less if we stopped awarding prizes for the winners at all. During the half time, I was wandering around visiting with different people and I happened to overhear one of the founding members all but calling me a liar. Well, anyone of you may check this out, but you will find this is the rules that we agreed on as a club.

        This is one of the largest, most successful clubs in the U.S., so that means to me that we must be doing something right. I think we have been headed in the right direction.

        Another thing I want to clear up-- this isn't Al's club. Tim Swenor made it clear that he has a club and my friend John Dudley has a club, but Al doesn't have a club I am a member of Your club, our club, S.W.M.S.S.

        There were messages on my answering machine before I even got home from the meeting, a flood of e-mails and more phone calls the next day. Many of you saw how upset I was at this meeting. One guy commented that he paid his dues at the start of the meeting and he wouldn't have paid had he waited until the end. Well that just shows you that we are human.

        There were a couple other items that people complained about that the board will deal with. If someone comes up to you with dollar signs in his eyes and he gets in-your-face to try to sell you something at the meeting, or even in the parking lot, report it to Mike Walker. This is a violation of the club rules. And if this person is bringing new detectors into the Kalamazoo or Allegan County zip code areas to sell, he is violating the rules of every single company he represents and that includes the seeded hunt location. His dealership is approved for the location of his dealership. Report it, please.

        I don't care that this person is a dealer and I am not afraid that he might make a sale. It isn't about me; it's about the club members. They don't like this and they not only let me know about their disapproval this time. Most everyone on the board was hearing complaints. People come to the meetings for fellowship and to rid themselves of the stress. I have never operated in this way because it alienates people, some of whom will never return. This person was warned once before.

        A good way to measure how the people feel about this is this. Explain to them the National Do Not Call List, then ask them, " How many of you would like to be on this list?"

1. Religious Medallion                                                                                By: Tim Swenor

2. Silver Boy Scout Ring                                                                      By: Nancy Lipscomb

3. 14-K Ring W/ Diamond Cross                                                             By: Tracy Osborne

4. Tiny Baby's Ring                                                                                    By: Bruce Wood

5. Gold Bracelet W/ Charm                                                                        By: Mike Walker

6. Gold Heart Charm                                                                                By: Sally Osborne

7. Lion's Head Ring                                                                                     By: Jack Barnes

8. 14-K Gold Diamond Ring                                                                            By: Rob Poth

9. Silver Bracelet                                                                                        By: Tim Peterson

10. Religious Medallion                                                                             By: Brian Norgan

11. Small Frog Shaped Ring                                                                  By: Rebecca Hoadley

Rob Poth was our winner with a beautiful ring. Good job, Rob!

1. 1902 Barber Quarter                                                                            By: Deb Wittkowski

2. 2 Wheats & 1 Indian, Same Dig                                                                  By: Ron Jenner

3. 1852 U.S. Large Cent                                                                                By: Mike Walker

4. 1876 CC Seated Liberty Dime                                                                 By: Rick Seymour

5. '44-50¢, 48-10¢ 17S- 1¢ Same Dig                                                               By: Tim Swenor

6. 1889 Seated Liberty Dime                                                                          By: Bruce Wood

7. 1891 Seated Liberty Dime                                                                 By: John Assenmacher

8. 1873 Indian Head Cent                                                                                By: Jack Barnes

9.1947 Mexican Coin                                                                                      By: Tom Herman

Jack Barnes won the contest with his very rare and beautiful 1873 Indian Head Cent.

1.Good for Drink at Bar 5¢ Token                                                                  By: Mike Walker

2. Scout Neckerchief Slide                                                                             By: Tracy Osborne

3.Mason's One Penny Token                                                                          By: Sally Osborne

4. '4-H' pin                                                                                              By: John Assenmacher

5. Excelsior Shoe Company Token                                                                    By: Tim Swenor

6. Colorado Tax Token                                                                                     By: Jack Barnes

7. Club Cigar Store Token                                                                               By: Tim Peterson

8. Arizona Tax Token                                                                                       By: Tom Herman

Mike Walker's Battle Creek Michigan token issued by 'The Store' was good for 5¢ at the bar. Our local token expert told Mike it is the only one he has seen. Nice find, Mike!

1. Universal Wrench                                                                                     By: Nancy Lipscomb

2. 1890's John Deere Pin                                                                                    By: Mike Walker

3. Solid Gold 1855 Thimble                                                                                     By: Rob Poth

4. Antique Pocket Watch                                                                                By: Jerry Lipscomb

5. Old Dog Whistle                                                                                              By: Billy Knapp

6. Pocket Watch Works                                                                                      By: Tim Peterson

7. Old Car Ad Printing Plate                                                                                  By: Ron Jenner

8. Arizona Auto Club Plate                                                                                 By: Tom Herman

9. Tractor Wheel Compass                                                                                      By: R. Hoadley

10. Possible Meteorite                                                                                          By: Ron Osborne

Our winner was Rob Poth. Rob found a beautiful solid gold antique sewing thimble in perfect condition! And it is even dated 1855! Could it have been a Mother's Day gift 153 years ago? What a neat find, Rob!