Check it out. http://www.bigbugstation.com/
We are adding new stuff each day or so.
Don Pablo was a character in the desert near Rialto Pass on Scottsdale Road in Phx, AZ when the road was washboard dirt. My dad used to hang out with him in the late 1950s. Don Pablo had lots of antiques and wondrous prospecting stories to tell and a big as ole feud going on with his nearest neighbor for miles who was just across the road from him. I only remember that gentleman as Curry and his place was Curry's Corner. Curry looked just like Wild Bill Hickok or Colonel Custer. the two of them made a real pair. So of course I would run into Don Pablo's nurse, Margaret( now retired, and a local) from when he was in Good Samaritan Hospital in Phx. in the 1970s. She was sitting right next to me sipping on that great "cold pressed" coffee that Mike Connors offers complimentary in our Mayer hangout and antique haven. I about fell over off my wooden stool (yup we sit there like the cowpokes did long ago at the old wooden back bar) when she asked Mike if he ever knew Don Pablo. We then exchanged some memories of ole Don Pablo. He used to be seen walking around downtown Scottsdale with a parrot on his shoulder. My dad Ray Yurcik used to hang out with Don Pablo in the early 50s and traded his Louisiana dueling pistols complete in their case with molds to our bullets and all for Don Pablo's square wooden box which came from a shooting gallery in the early 1900s. If you hit the metal button in the middle, the doors popped open to reveal a Victorian bedroom scene with a porcelain headed doll family. Ma was in bed nodding her head while looking into an hand held glass mirror while son was holding up his nite shirt peeing into a pee pot (the stream was bent glass tubing) and pa was rocking in his rocking chair reading the paper all while a music box played. don Pablo came to my father's home in Maryvale once driving an old car with a HUGE set of longhorn steer horns mounted on the hood. He was followed in by a Native American squaw. I say squaw cause she was dressed in the old style of Native Americans on the reservation of the late 1940s early 50s. (You can see where I got my penchant for collecting characters in my life) You never know who you will meet at Big Bug Station. I am loving it.
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.
