My new friend Carol was minding the antique shop/gathering place later than usual this morning while Mike ran errands. Six in the morning till eight is a good time to catch her sitting still (no mean feat) and to get her to tell us some Carol tales. Carol has led an adventurous life. Just for starters…she traveled up the Alcan Highway to Alaska when it was a hundred percent dirt track while carrying her baby in a shoebox in her lap. Her husband worked building the Fairbanks airport. Years later, while her husband managed a big mine in New Guinea, she flew to the mountain head hunting tribes and provided aid to the villagers. And here she is in Mayer, Arizona swapping stories at Big Bug Station, a place both locals and world travelers come to share both personal and historic anecdotes.
Hey, I don’t remember what it was I shared (yes I do but it was some proof of me being a bit nuts so I refuse to go into it here and now) but it caused a big basso laugh, half mellow and half bellow, to fill the old dancehall. The laugh originated from local Don Charles, a talented musician and singer. After I finished banging my forehead on the antique wood bar, he talked to Carol and me of his years managing a ranch nearby. It seems he reveled in the solitude, the closeness to nature his hours of being out alone on his horse “managing” brought him. It was there he met and married the other half of the professional musical duo called D- Squared, Deb Gessner. Check out http://www.dsquaredmusic.com/biography
Mike arrived So Carol and I left to catch a yummy roast beef open faced sandwhich lunch at the Senior Center for a mere $3.50. Besides as a new person in town I didn’t want too many of those inklings of my being nuts to slip out in conversation so early in my settling into the community now did I? Run away. Run away.
Major Opal Addict
Me shoveling 70 feet below ground into my rickshaw.
About Me
- Parched Earth Opals
- Mayer, Arizona, United States
- I hunt for treasure and I find it in wild, rough as guts, crazy places. The booty I have unearthed includes gems, gold, and big oil pipeline paychecks. I have worked with the crackle of the Aurora Borealis overhead and the crunch of Arctic ice beneath my feet. For the last twenty-five years, I have mined opals below ground and camped beneath the Australian sky. This considerably skewed my city girl perspective of life. Because I lived without electricity 6 months out of the year for so many years, I had plenty of time to observe, write, and cartoon the saga of the thrilling side of my dual life. I am Barbara McCondra, mother, teacher, commercial real estate agent, Arctic oilfield worker, Aussie opal miner, gem dealer, and freelance writer/lecturer. I live with one foot each in two hemispheres. When I am asked, “How did you DO that?” I always respond,” If I dress it, speak it, and walk it, I become it,” Simple and exciting. My life is a perpetual adventure. I love it.
