12/24/17 Report - Firsts and Oldest.

Source: CatholicCompany web site.  See link below.

St. Francis of Assissi had a special devotion to the Child Jesus, and he is credited with creating the first nativity scene on Christmas Eve of the year 1223...

Here is the link about the first nativity scene.

https://www.catholiccompany.com/getfed/story-francis-assisi-first-navity-scene/

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... Christmas was kept much the same in mid-18th-century Virginia as it was in late 16th-century England.

Englishmen who came to the American colonies brought along their cultural traditions. In dress, manners, and social behavior, Virginia settlers tried to recreate the ambiance they had known back home. Their Christmas, like the English manors', evolved as an interval of leisure to enjoy feasting, visiting, dancing, and games. Even in Virginia's critical early days, the settlers did not forget Christmas. Captain John Smith wrote in 1609 that he kept “Christmas amongst the Salvages: where wee were never more merrie, nor fedde on more plentie of good oysters, fish, flesh, wild fowle, and good bread, nor better fires in England then in the drie warme smokie houses of Kecoughtan.” Kecoughtan is now part of Hampton...

During the holiday season, Colonial Williamsburg doors and windows are wreathed in arrangements fashioned of natural materials. This boxwood construction is accented with holly, pine, apples, and feathers. Among other popular accents are oranges, pineapples, and seashells...

Seashells make good ornaments and decorations. I showed some examples yesterday.

Here is the link for more about Christmas in colonial Virginia.

http://www.history.org/almanack/life/christmas/hist_inva.cfm

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The First American Christmas

The first Christmas celebration in what was later to become the continental United States took place in St. Augustine,Florida, in 1565 (for a list of entries treating American history and customs, see United States of America, Christmas in). Old documents inform us that Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales presided over a Christmas service held at the Nombre de Dios Mission in that year. The Shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Leche now marks this location.The town of St. Augustine boasts of being the oldest settlement founded by Europeans in what is now the United States. Still, residents of Tallahassee, Florida, suspect that an even earlier Christmas celebration may have been held near the site of their town. In 1539 a party of Spanish colonists, led by explorer Hernando de Soto (c. 15001542),camped near the place where Tallahassee now stands. Since the Spaniards stayed from October 1539 to March of the following year, some Floridians speculate that they must have celebrated Christmas there.

But who knows? There might have been others.

Here is that link.

https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/America%2C+Christmas+in+Colonial

Of course Florida did not become a part of the United States until 1819.

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This is said to be the first artificial Christmas Tree.   124 years old and still being used.

Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336110/Worlds-oldest-Christmas-tree-makes-welcome-return--124th-year.html

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I had another post almost done but decided I wanted to do Christmas today.

Merry Christmas,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/26/14 Report - Memorial Day, Dug Fire Fighter Medal, and Prayer Medals Old and New

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

Fire Fighter Prayer Medal Dug Last Friday.

It is Memorial Day.  I was thinking of taking the day off.  It seems like a day meant for serious reflection.

I've learned a lot of history in the past year through genealogical research, and that has made history seem much more real and meaningful to me. 

This is one of the items that I dug Friday.  Obviously it is a Fire Department token or medal, but I have no idea if it is a local thing, where it comes from or how old it is.  I'd guess that it is not very old, although it was very encrusted before I cleaned it with acid.

Any ideas on this?  Let me know.

It is about the size of  silver dollar. 

The back of the medal has a prayer for fire fighters on it.  Not a bad fit for Memorial Day.

I think that people too often say that their "thoughts and prayers" are with so and so.  It has become too politically correct for my liking.  It is easy to say and sounds good in public, but I wonder how often the people that say it actually pray.  It has become so popular that I wouldn't be surprised if even atheist use it. 

This isn't the first prayer medal that I've found and shown.  I've found a few. 

You might remember a prayer medallion from a 1715 Fleet beach that I showed some time ago.   It was found back quite a few years ago.  I don't remember the date.






1715 Fleet Prayer Medallion.

That one is shown here.  It is a St. Francis of Assisi medallion, and the prayer on the back is known as the May the Lord Give You Peace prayer.

It still has faint traces of silver gilt on it.  

I've told this story before, but this medallion was so encrusted that I thought it was a coin.  It sat in a box of coins that needed to be cleaned for a long while before I discovered that it was not a coin.  Yes, it was that encrusted.

Inspect your finds when you get them home - even coins.

Translated from Latin the prayer reads, The Lord bless you and keep you, may He show His face to you and have mercy, May He turn His countenance to you and give you peace.

Thanks to Tom Guidus who originally sent me the translation of that prayer.

One medal that I found with a prayer on it is an AA medal which has the Serenity Prayer on it.  That one was found in a lake in Minnesota along with a variety of silver religious medallions.



I've heard from a number of detectorists lately, some from PSL and some from other areas.


Joe G. is one.  Joe has lived in Floridian for 5 years.   He said, I detect up and around Indialantic, Paradise, Melbourne beach. I used to detect up in New York when I lived up there, detecting a few parks at that time. When we were doing the parks, all of a sudden we were told we could not detect them by the park workers. So we stopped as soon as we were told this. But come to find out through the (GRAPEVINE), LOL. That the park workers were detecting it shortly afterwards, LOL. They wanted it all for themselves !

I've personally seen examples of that myself.   I have no evidence that is case with the PSL Parks personnel.  It does happen though. 

One time I was detecting a park just after a fair had just left.  The parks people turned on the sprinklers to both chase me off and uncover coins on the dusty fair grounds.  They were disappointed to learn that I had already done a good job of cleaning up.  There were literally rolls of coins in concentrated areas where the ticket booths were located.


Beach conditions have not changed on the Treasure Coast lately.  Still a calm surf.   There should be plenty of newly lost items out there as a result of all the holiday activities.

I think I'll quit there today even though I have a lot more to talk about. 

I hope there are others prepared to take action to preserve our freedom to metal detect.  

Remember,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net