6/7/20 Report - Meaning and Folding of Burial Flags. Being Prepared for Larger and Different Kinds of Finds. Cristobal.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Source: http://wvutoday-archive.wvu.edu/resources/1/1251677894.jpg

With the current controversy regarding showing respect for the flag, I thought it would be helpful to actually look at some of the symbolism and significance of burial flags and memorial flags for veterans.

Here is an excerpt from one site.


Here is how to understand the flag that laid upon it and is surrendered to so many widows and widowers: Do you know that at military funerals, the 21-gun salute stands for the sum of the numbers in the year 1776?

Have you ever noticed that the honor guard pays meticulous attention to correctly folding the United States of America Flag 13 times? You probably thought it was to symbolize the original 13 colonies, but we learn something new every day.

To understand what the flag draped coffin really means.

• The 1st fold of the flag is a symbol of life.
• The 2nd fold is a symbol of the belief in eternal life...

Etc.

Here is that link for more.

http://www.lanesboroamericanlegion.org/meaning-of-the-flag-draped-coffin.html

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A few days ago I started a series of posts on mistakes I've made after finding an object.  The first one that I discussed was having a hole in your pocket or goodie bag resulting in finds being lost before getting them home, and the second mistake that I already discussed was damaging an object during recovery, for example hitting it with your scoop or digger.   I'll discuss the third mistake today, which as to do with bottle finds.

Before starting with that new mistake though, I just remembered another example that fits in with the hole in pocket or bag mistake.  One day there were a lot of fossils on the beach - some of them being large. A few of them were a foot long, and some were heavy.  It was an unusual occasion.  I've only seen so many and such large fossils on the beach that one time in many years.

I wasn't planning on hunting fossils that day and had never found so many.  As a result, I got caught unprepared.  It caught me by surprise and all I had with me to use was some plastic shopping bags. Not only were some of the fossils large, but some were also pointed.

As I gathered fossils like a kid picking up Easter eggs, I stuffed them into my bag, which eventually broke, and some of the fossils came out as I walked far down the beach.  I lost some good fossils before I discovered that one of my bags broke.  I learned from that experience that it is a good idea to have some large and sturdy bag or container with me.  A back pack, big sturdy bucket or something like that can come in very handy.

Think about it.  If you ever come across that treasure chest or cache of silver bar that you always dreamed of finding, how are you going to carry it?   It won't fit in your pocket, and if you plan to come back for it later, you might be disappointed about how that works out.  It isn't like you are out in a remote location where there are no other people or where there are no tides or waves or anything.  The beach is not a good place to leave finds with the hope of retrieving them later.  A big heavy duty bag, bucket or container might save you.

Obviously you can't be prepared for every situation, but you might keep things in your car that might come in handy.   I have a large (about three by four feet) heavy duty bag  that I keep in the trunk of my car.  I've carried some big heavy stuff in that bag, but there are times when even that would not do the job.  You might not always need something like that, but you don't want to lose your best find just because you weren't prepared for something bigger or heavier than you expected to find.

Now I'll get back to the mistake that I planned to discuss today.  It is related - not having some materials for padding or packing fragile items.

One of the great things about treasure hunting, is that you never know what you might find.  The first time I found some good old bottles was after Hurricane Andrew.  That was my first experience collecting old bottles. I was metal detecting, when I noticed some old bottles rolling in the surf.  I took a look at some of them, and they were embossed and appeared to be old.  I didn't know much of anything about old bottles at the time, but decided to collect them.  Of course, that wasn't what I was thinking of doing when I went metal detecting that day, so I was totally unprepared to carry back a lot of old bottles.  I found some old plastic bags laying in the trash along the beach and used those.  They worked on that occasion.  I sold some of those bottles but still have a few of them.

Plastic bags aren't great for carrying old bottles or other breakable items though.  One day when I found some good bottles, I had a couple plastic bags along with me, and filled two or three bags.  I had two bags in one hand.  When I walked the bags would swing, and so eventually the two bags clashed together and my best bottle got broke.

Here is one way to find out which is your best bottle -  it is always the one that breaks.  If two bottles clash together, the best one will break.   That is my experience.  When the two swinging bags came together, the bottom corner of one bottle hit the weakest spot of the best bottle and broke the best bottle.   It was an pre-1900 Busch beer bottle.  I never again found one that old.

Plastic bags are easy to carry in your pocket and can come in handy, but they aren't good for carrying  heavy, sharp, or fragile items.  If you get caught in an unexpected situation and only have some plastic bags for carrying fragile finds, you can do what I learned to do - pad or pack the fragile items with something.  I've found, for example, that seaweed can be used to pad bottles.

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Cristobal is hitting the north Gulf coast.  According to the NHC...

We'll have a small surf and big tides on the Treasure Coast.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net