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Kat Receives Big Rock for Big Birthday!
My husband, Jay, got me a big rock for my up-and-coming 50th birthday. When I say big, I mean really big. So big, he had to rent a BobCat bulldozer to haul the thing to my house. You see, he actually brought me a whole trailer load of big rocks from his grandmother’s homestead to place by our front drive as you pull in to our house. Now I know you were thinking I thought she meant a diamond but in all honesty, these rocks mean much, much more.
I was a geology/art major in college. A member of the Geology Club at Emporia State University in Kansas I was really into rocks. I had a license tag that stated “I LOVE ROCKS!� and have always been fascinated since a kid with rocks and other found objects in nature. Now you know I am not just obsessed with books, I am a well-rounded obsessive/compulsive person.
My two daughter’s middle names are Amethyst and Alexandrite. My husband on our honeymoon bought me some quartz crystals in Arkansas, later a sterling silver and quartz crystal bracelet. Somehow, I never got the big ring. Having a store bought diamond was never important to me, but we have been digging for raw diamonds in Arkansas.
On our first anniversary, as we were careening down the highway I screamed, “Stop, stop! I have to have that rock.� My husband reluctantly hit the brakes, pulled over, climbed the hill, rolled this massive rock slab down the hill, tilted it up to the tailgate of his truck, and macho, macho man, lifted that rock into the bed of his truck. We looked like low riders all the way back to Texas. Now that is true love to me my friends. When a man does something for you that goes against his better judgment and does it for you anyway, you know that he loves you. Let me clarify that statement by saying of course, nothing that would be considering breaking the law in case any of you get any ideas, ha ha.
When Jay entered the house last Monday and asked, “Okay, Kathy, where do you want your rocks.� I, as pleased as punch, walked out the door, down the drive to point and instruct the placement of the behemoth boulders.
Once when on a trip home to visit family in Kansas my Daddy, Jay and I went for a drive out in the Flint Hills of Kansas. As we drove by Eureka Lake, I told them the spillway had some amazing sedimentary rocks just full of fossils. We pulled in and stopped for a look/see. We walked down the dirt road to the spillway before the dam and it was as dry as a bone. As I looked over the vast amounts of shale slabs that amounted to the dried up creek bed Jay looked up at me and said, “Oh no, I know exactly what you are thinking. There is no way Kathy we can get one of those rock slabs up that hill into your dads S.U.V.�
I did not say a word. I just put on my pouty face and pointed. My daddy went, “What are you talking about? Rocks! Surely, you don’t mean�. He stopped mid-sentence as he watched Jay walk over to one of the slabs, tilt the massive rock up on its side, and proceed to roll it rather clumsily up the hill. My daddy jumped in to join him. I bounded up the hill to unlock the Mountaineer and get the back ready for the huge rock slab. It would just fit if I could just move some of the tools to the middle seat. That rock is now the coffee table in my great room of our house. I look at it every morning as I drink my first cup of coffee. As I read in my favorite burgundy winged back chair I glance up now and then to admire this grand work of nature.
Everybody in the world knows that I am obsessive/compulsive about books, but rocks? They are all over my house plus bird nests, interesting sticks, and jars of sand. I even have one of the weathered boards of my grandparent’s home place hanging on my wall and a burned out brick from the house in the window box above my kitchen sink. An old bottle of dirt from “Outhome� as we call it sits on my table to remind me of where I come from in case I ever get too big for my britches.
My big dream is to climb Ayer’s Rock in Australia. I ogled a real moon rock once at the Louisiana State Fair. The only problem with collecting rocks is it has taken its toll on my husbands back. He totes the rocks and books.
So the next time you want to know what love is, think of my nontraditional rock. For me there is nothing more sexy and endearing than a man lugging my books and hauling rocks. Looks like my 50th birthday is going to a grand one. The way I figure it, 50 to go and as long as my husband’s back holds out the next plan of action is a water feature by our front deck. Anybody know where we can get some really cool, big rocks?
Tiara wearing, Book, and Rock sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
Comments
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By Deborah Smith
August 14, 2006 4:31 PM | Link to this
Rocks Rule! I laughed so hard, reading Kathy’s post about loving rocks. I’m a rock-lover, too. In the past three years I estimate I’ve loaded and unloaded over 30,000 pounds of flat gray Tennessee fieldstone. My country house is now surrouned by terraces with rock walls!I pick up souvenier rocks on the roadside — most recently from a roadside stream in North Carolina, where I set my latest novel, The Crossroads Cafe. That rock now forms part of a miniature rock garden in a large pot on my front porch. I’ve done a lot of reading about semi-precious gemstones for The Crossroads Cafe and also for previous novels of mine. The mountains of Georgia and the Carolinas are known for their gem-and-gold mining. My husband, Hank, bought me a “star ruby” a few years ago. Star rubies are generally the country cousins of “real” rubies. They’re opaque and jewelers polish them into rounded cabachons, not faceted forms. Thanks to tiny fractures in the gems, when you hold a star ruby to the light just-so you see a distinct starburst at the stone’s center. They are truly magical gemstones!
By Kathy L. Patrick
August 15, 2006 8:37 AM | Link to this
Well, Deborah, I’m ready to rent a U-Haul trailor and head on over to Tennessee! Funny, I was just telling my husband that we needed some flat fieldstone for a walkway around our property.
I settled for a garden bench that we made out of the girls old iron baby bed that we whipped together this weekend. We have it nestled under the boughs of some evergreens where we have our pet cemetery. I am also learning that there are a bunch of rock hounds out there. I also collect crosses, wonder how many people collect those? Let’s see, I collect books, rocks, crosses, state plates, old suitcases, found objects, rhinestone jewelry and tiaras, jungle animals, anything leopard, postcards, globes, porcelain boxes of architectural landmarks, Eiffel Towers, anything international, art, shoot, I just am a collector. I just hope that the foundations hold at my house and shop. Everybody always ask me what I am going to do with all this stuff since I obviously can’t take it with me. First, my girls can have a go at it and all the rest will go to my Pulpwood Queen museum. That’s right, Beauty and the Book I hope will live on as “Graceland” did Elvis. I want to call it BOOKLAND! What do you all think? Would anybody travel to Jefferson, Texas to see my tiger striped toilet seat that is surrounded on my bathroom walls by my author and publisher correspondence? Or maybe the tiara light fixture that I am designing in remembrance of me living to see my fiftieth year? Or the fabulous handmirrors that my friends and authors have signed and given to me that will border my book store part of my shop. I see them as a reflection of all our literacy good work and to show us that true beauty does come from within though it doesn’t hurt to make yourself look as good as possible, he he he! Or the antique baby blue dryer chairs that will soon be on my front porch courtesy of my good friend and Timber Guy Nelson Collier. Great for Kodak moments wearing your tiaras! Or my throne chair behind my desk and in front of my hot pink and glittery fireplace that is my shrine to my literary queendom. Oh there will be something for everybody and you will be able to buy a good book too! Now that is something I would want to see! Thanks for writing Deborah and will be reading “The Crossroads Cafe” real soon. kat
By Caryl McAdoo
August 15, 2006 10:50 AM | Link to this
Happy Birthday, Kathy And what a great B-day it is! I so enjoyed reading about your ‘other’ obsession. Many years ago, my husband Ron gifted me with a rock for Valentines Day. He had painstakingly carved in it a heart encompassing Ron + Caryl. It has been on display in my gardens or by my fireplaces ever since. I loved it so much, he also got me a rock for our 22nd anniversary (16 years ago). When my children go out of town on a trip, they bring me back rocks! It’s fun that we share two loves - books and rocks! Have a fabulous birthday and a blessed and favored year! Your fellow writer and reader and rock collector, Caryl McAdoo
By Kathy L. Patrick
August 17, 2006 7:30 AM | Link to this
Caryl, Wow, and I always wanted Kat + whoever painted up on the Eureka, Kansas water tower. Never happened but loved your rock story. You know the old adage, “Diamonds are forever”. Well you can’t take them with you so I would rather have a “rock” that I can enjoy right now. Thanks for writing, I love hearing the responses. kat
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August 17, 2006 12:05 PM | Link to this
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