Stone Age character Fred Flintstone and his pals knew what to do with rocks: cut them into slabs and use them as wheels on a car or walls of a house; throw a few slabs together and call it a table; or simply drill a few holes into a nice round rock and use it as a bowling ball.
The folks of Bedrock had at least 1,001 ways to fashion rocks into useful objects in the popular cartoon series and movie, but there are real-life rockers who create thousands of items as well-including jewelry and paperweights-and just as no two rocks are identical, neither are the people who work with them.
There are those who specialize in gem faceting; others enjoy nothing more than hunting for rocks, cracking them open and finding fossils inside. Still others enjoy the discovery of mineral specimens that they mount on shelves for display.
Some become interested in rocks as children; what family doesn’t have a box or bag containing the finds of their youngsters? In fact, in many families it is the interest of the children that sometimes turns a pebble-sized curiosity into a boulder-sized passion.
“The kids have a science fair project, and pretty soon, Mom and Dad are hooked,” said Jeri Justice of New Lenox, the owner of Jeri’s Rock Shop in Oak Forest.
Whether vocation or hobby, this is an interest that many share in one of the many clubs located throughout Chicago and the suburban area.
One of the most active clubs is the Greater Oak Lawn Diggers (G.O.L.D.), which was founded 19 years ago and now includes more than 60 members.
The club, sponsored by the Oak Lawn Park District, meets at 7 p.m. on the first Friday of each month at the Oak View Center in Oak Lawn. Meetings include talks given by experts in various aspects of rock collecting, such as speakers from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
The club is a place for people to gain hands-on experience, according to outgoing president Earl Machart Jr. of Burbank. “It is a fun way of learning about the earth sciences, whether it be archeology, faceting or other aspects,” he said.
Machart, a master faceter like his father and uncle before him, said he enjoys teaching others his craft. “That is what we try to do at these shows, to show others what it is all about,” he said.
The club also offers camaraderie, he said, providing a place where people can come and freely ask questions. Although many are experts in their field, most are amateurs, but ones who want to share their expertise with others.
In addition to meetings, club members often lecture in local schools, spreading knowledge about rocks and generating interest among children. “The older people are slacking off because of old age,” Machart said, “and we don’t have enough young people.”
To head off such an eventuality, another club has formed a special organization for children as a means of keeping the interest alive.
The Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois (ESCONI) sponsors a junior club for children. Although it meets in Downers Grove, it draws members from some of the southwest suburbs.
The junior club not only meets the needs of children, but also helps draw in adults, according to Martha Prepp of Downers Grove, an ESCONI member. “They start coming to the junior meetings, and the next thing you know, they are coming to the adult lectures.”
The junior club meets at Standard Federal Savings, 5100 Forest, Downers Grove, at 10 a.m. on the Saturday after the general meetings, which are the second Friday of the month.
“We started in the hobby in 1953,” Prepp said. “We had two children with medical problems, and the doctor told us that we needed a hobby, something to get us out.”
She and her husband, George, became enthralled with rock hunting and the various aspects of collecting. “I have always been an outdoors person and loved nature, so this was ideal,” Martha Prepp said.
They found that through ESCONI they could share their interest with others. ESCONI meets from 8 to 10 p.m. on the second Friday of each month at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. During the meetings, guest speakers talk about various aspects of the pursuit, including paleontology, archeology, mineralogy and lapidary arts. The group also has study groups that meet at other times to discuss those topics in more detail.
Although Prepp’s favorite topic is archeology, she said it is difficult to pursue because dig sites and quarries usually are closed to the public.
Many of the quarries are no longer open, Prepp said, for a couple of reasons. “Some of them would have so many people going in and out, and they are there primarily to be in business,” she said. “Also, some of them are unsafe and there is the issue of liability.”
The club also sponsors field trips, some of which have been to Germantown, Wis., to see a collection of Midwest minerals, and to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. It also maintains a collection of books on rocks and minerals that members may borrow.
“My daughter became interested (in rocks) when she was in 4th grade,” said Claran Ryan of Darien, another member of ESCONI. “The club provides a good family learning experience.”
“ESCONI is a nice group for people with a strange little niche,” she said. “When you have a real interest in something, it is hard sometimes to find people with the same interest.”
Ryan said that her main interest is fossils; her daughter, Susan, who is now a junior at Illinois State University in Normal, continues to remain interested in the earth sciences.
“She is minoring in geology,” Ryan said. “Many other children who were members of the juniors also found that this was for them.”
Although formal membership may not always reflect a strong interest among suburbanites, attendance at activities does. G.O.L.D. draws large crowds to its annual show at the Oak Lawn Pavilion, Machart said. Past shows have been held in the fall, but the 1995 show will be held in the spring, on May 21.
Rock hounds have a number of monthly magazines that cater to their vocation and hobby, including Lapidary Journal and Rock and Gem.
In addition, many of the local clubs put out bulletins and journals of their own. ESCONI publishes the Earth Science News 11 times a year. During the last year, articles have included “A Lapidary Field Trip,” “Minerals in Medicine” and “Rockhounds Live Longer.” G.O.L.D. publishes The Digger monthly.
Not too far away is a unique museum dedicated to lapidary art. Located in Elmhurst, the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art displays more than 2,000 pieces. Its founder, Italian immigrant Joseph Lizzadro, was a hobbyist who began acquiring jade carvings during the 1930s.
His strong interest, and his realization that there were others like him, led him to investigate the creation of a lapidary museum.
“There is no other museum like this in the Chicago area,” said Dorothy Anderson, director of the museum.
It opened its doors on May 21, 1961, and is the site of many educational programs on lapidary arts and earth science.
Once a year, for instance, the museum conducts a fossil dig for children. Children’s swimming pools are filled with sand, and children “dig” for fossils, which are then identified by experts.
Those who conduct digs on their own often come to Jeri Justice to identify their finds.
“I’m self-taught,” she said. “I read books for about 15 years, but I learn a lot now by looking at the rocks.”
She said that five excited people came to her shop recently believing that they had found gold. “It wasn’t gold, it was mica,” she said, a mineral of little value containing aluminum, oxygen and silicone.
She also deals in gems and rocks that people believe have healing powers. “I think it is possible,” she said. “I had a minister come in here once and tell me that God made many things that can help us. Why not rocks?”
On the farm she and her husband recently purchased in New Lenox are the 32 tons of rocks Justice has gathered through the years. “I used to tell people, `Bring me some pretty rocks.’ Usually what they brought were ugly,” she said. “I started looking myself.”
She said that her mind is like a computer. “Once I see a rock, I always remember it,” she said, but just in case, she wears an emerald-a gem said to help memory.
The beauty of rocks is what attracted Paula Kavaliunas of Oak Lawn to the hobby of rock collecting. “I lived in North Carolina, where we have emerald and ruby mines,” she said. “I always wanted to go out mining, but my ex-husband told me that if I wanted to dig in the dirt, I could go out in the yard.”
She and her new husband, Algirdas, went on their first mining trip back to North Carolina early this summer, and rock fever hit her hard. “I have purchased a faceting machine,” she said, “and I have been making jewelry for gifts.”
Her work table in the garage of the couple’s townhome leaves just enough room to squeeze in the cars. “It is my link to sanity,” she said. “I can take this ugly rock, put it on a slab saw, and then look at this thing of beauty.”
