[meteorite-list] Tucson, my first

From: Walter Sullivan <wsulliva_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:54:06 2004
Message-ID: <3C70628A.6060204_at_ix.netcom.com>

        This was my first Tucson show (for that matter, my first meteorite show),
and it was great. I could only get away for last weekend, but I caught
the highlights: the Birthday Bash and the Macovitch auction. It was
great meeting the very friendly people that I have communicated with by
Email and read on the List. At the Birthday party, I was new, had never
met almost everybody, so I was put at the Table of Honor with the
Birthday Boys, Bruno and Carine, Anne Black, and others. Everybody made
a point to talk to me, make me feel welcome, and introduce me to
everybody. Geoff was particularly solicitous. Thanks.

I picked up some great Mars rocks, a slice of Gibeon, even a Triassic
fossil. I got to use my trés mal French with a mineral dealer from
Morocco from whom I got a few quartz spheres for my wife. My airport
experience was amusing. I had no check-on bags, just a backpack and a
small carry-on bag. As was the case for almost everybody, when my two
bags went through the X-ray machine, they shouted "bag check". I knew
this was coming. The quartz spheres were in my backpack and the large,
thin Gibeon (sort of like a small guillotine or ax blade) was in the
small carry-on with the Mars rocks and fossil. I was led over to the
side where I joined the crowd. I asked the very serious "agent" to be
careful with my carry-on as he picked it up. This made him even more
serious and he asked me, "What's in it?" He looked worried expecting a
Stinger missile launcher or small nuclear device, but I said, "There are
meteorites inside, very fragile, very valuable". I swear that he had not
the slightest idea what I was talking about. I could have been speaking
Arabic. Anyway, he put my two bags next to me on a chair, and began to
checkr over every part of my body and clothes with a metal detector.
Don't you have to have a medical license to perform sigmoidoscopy? He
was very unhappy with me as I had a few coins in the pocket of my pants.
I had to take my running shoes off. They were run through the explosive
sniffing machine and through the metal detector. A second man came over,
the "bag man"; he picked up my backpack and took me and it over to a
counter. I grabbed the small carry-on with the real goodies and took it
with me. He asked me to take off my shoes, again. I said that I had just
done this 3 minutes and 10 feet ago, but if he really wanted them, I
would oblige, particularly in view of the soldiers with rifles standing
right next to us, but the other serious guy came over and said that my
shoes had been checked out. Middle age is wanting to tie one's shoe
laces as little as possible. Okay, so now he is going through my
backpack handling it like it was packed with scorpions. Immediately, he
sees things big hard things wrapped in newspaper. As he intently and
carefully unwraps the quartz spheres, he does not look at the newspaper.
It is all in Arabic! The merchant from Morocco used it to wrap them.
Lucky me. He might have asked what it said. I'm afraid I would have been
tempted to be witty, and, no doubt, would have spent the night in jail,
but he never noticed. So now he has a guy with a bunch of big hard heavy
spheres filled with who knows what wrapped in Arabic newspaper. So he
says, "OK, you can go". I wrap everything up, grab my small bag (the one
with the guillotine-like piece of iron) and head for the gate. They
never checked it! Amazing. Boy, did I feel safe getting on that
airplane. Next year, I will take more time off, and definitely DRIVE.

All in all, I had a great time. I have never been so warmly received by
strangers. I have been involved with Astronomy for many years, and
amateur astronomers are similar. Very passionate about their avocation,
totally understanding and accepting of others who share their interest,
and basically, kids who have grown up, but not grown old as they
continue to pine for the stars.

I can't wait for next year.

Walter Sullivan
Received on Sun 17 Feb 2002 09:10:18 PM PST