Re: What used products do you buy?

That's why I say, help people. Seniors are sitting ducks. I've seen so many just step in and help...like the neighbor who just mows the lawn on the day he is mowing his. Or, the lady who shares a bit of baking and stays for tea, regularly.

From there it is easy to take up a task or two..."I'll just give the fridge a wipe down, while you knit." "It will be easy to change the bed and do a load of laundry while we chat." "I could sort that closet, and maybe we'll find the book you remember." The idea being that you will help, where wanted. Use your best instincts.

Sometimes just the suggestion that you look for their lights at night, and therefore see that the yard looks safe, is enough to reassure a senior. A brightly colored card in the window in the morning is a fine way to signal to a neighbor that the senior is up and about.

Some places there is a law that a landlord or manager must SEE his tenant at least once every 24 hours.

A little Internet research and a telephone call or two, could indicate the value of an item, 'just for insurance purposes', or, investigate the services available to seniors, 'in case they may be needed someday'.

Still, a 'bad' guy could do the same. Maybe it's best if two or three neighbors drop in for tea, or a chat in the garden. Or, invite the senior to their house.

I know a lady who was raised that way in a tiny town in Mexico. She was always taking a dish or a plate of something she had 'extra' in her kitchen, to single neighbors on either side. Sometimes they didn't reciprocate, but she didn't really mind, that was how she wanted to live.

..............

Run a metal detector over a gold ring, sometime. You'll hear a double beep as it picks up the gold on one side, and the other...just as will a stray pull-tab.

Then imagine that the ring is standing on its side, in sand or dirt...just one quick beep.

Keep a strong, small magnet in your sand scoop. It won't pick up copper or gold or silver, but most coins of today stick to it.

I get all the bobby pins...and 1/2 inch pieces of wire that used to be twist ties. The most frustrating is the tiny piece of foil that I chase in sand for 10 or 15 minutes.

Two things I know...my detector and hunting methods are NOT missing much...and, I am picking up and putting all the trash in the can, so I won't find it again next time.

When our club seeds a section of the beach with nickels and tokens for prizes, ALL of the items are never found, though there be a dozen of us out there.

Eight detectors could cover a beach, and still leave stuff. And who knows what is left?

I once found five $2 coins in one hole...under a children's play construction.

The detectors who go out often, and stay at it a long while, are the ones who find the diamond rings, and plenty of other stuff.

One beautiful diamond ring was found among rocks, in the edge of the lake...a very hard place to search. It was corroded, too. It must have been there a long time.

Then there is detecting in water...a specialized effort. One fellow offered to search the water for a man's gold and diamond pendant that had slipped off when the man had dived under.

The detector fellow zigged and zagged in a grid pattern for a long time, then decided to call it a day. Detecting as he made for shore, in a zig-zag path...he found it!

He was rewarded because the medallion was worth lots of money, and the owner was a generous person.

One lady lost a valuable diamond ring in her own back yard. She even bought a detector to look for it. But she had no luck.

She asked a club member what he would charge to look for her. The detector fellow said that two of them would come, just for gas money.

They did, and found the ring in five minutes. It was standing on its edge, leaning against a tree root, in grass.

The lady pressed a reward on the fellows, and gave them the detector she no longer needed. The ring had cost $15,000.

One of those detector fellows was spending a morning at the beach. A woman there was looking frantically for a Gucci watch she had bought from her grandmother.

Sure enough, the fellow was able to find it after searching for a while. It was nowhere near where she thought she had lost it.

He didn't expect to be rewarded because, in conversation, the lady had mentioned that she had been tree-planting for the Department of Forestry to earn her living.

That's a new way I have heard of folks helping seniors...buying things from them. A pal, recently widowed, bought her grandmother's house, so the elderly lady could go on living there, and the house would stay in the family. My friend has a good job, and the freedom to make her own choices of which side of the country to live on. She will stay with her grandmother when she visits family in her hometown.

Everyone benefits.

I would encourage anyone to go out on the beach early in the morning, 5 a.m. on a hot summer's day, and go with a friend, in case there are people sleeping there.

You will only be shy to be seen in your old clothes and pocket apron once, after that you will be seen as the 'expert', and joggers and walkers will ask you, "Find anything?"

You could show a few coins and bottle caps and a pocket full of trash, but you wouldn't want to show rings and things...just in case...unless they were crying and describing the very thing you found.

You also don't want to be 'searching' around sun bathers. They could get annoyed.

Little kids are the most fun. I let one six-year-old 'listen' and point the detector. Bingo! There was a penny. I gave it to him. His daddy was pleased.

My husband noted that the little fellow would remember all his life. I was pleased that my husband thought about that. A tiny event we will all remember warmly.

We never know where or when adventure will happen.

F.