Well old Crow
has had his grandpa nap...Okay where was I? Oh yes that yarn that got away before the power nap kicked in.
These is few here will probably know the yarn as Hardluck told this one many times. I was there at the bar that night but my attention was slight distracted drunk 2 dollar Mary showing off her wobblies. At the infamous bar and den of iniquity the Madang Social club in Papa New guinea .It was a place where all the expats hung out to drink to drown their sorrows. We had come back from few weeks in the bush in highland drilling and we were on a mission of self destruction. The heat on coastal lowlands was extremely oppressive there is just no escaping it. Alcohol was it seemed at good excuse to deal with it. But a few ales dulled the pain.
The Madang Socail club had a strange mix of people all seeking tempory relief of some form normality as living in Papa new Guinea is anything but normal. Bar had every everything from flipped out hippies with tin foil hats that was too stoned to know the vietnam war had ended years ago, Ex Veterans finding this very sorry ass part world better than the homes they had come from. Others were hiding from the law that had stuffed up once too often and had no place to go. There was Miners Geologist and some of the original administrators who for one reason or another stayed on after independence. And the odd mercenary would blow in blow out. That coupled with alchol which was being fed to these dinosaurs with liberal amounts of women of ill repute made this a watering hole for the stateless and dateless...
That was the Madang Social Club My Friends. And of Course the Unholy trio and the devils misfits fit in like a glove.
It was on one of those hot humid night drowning our sorrows like no tomorrow Hardluck struck up a conversation with a middle age American from East Coast of United States. He did say the state. But to be honest at the time we had been drinking rum and beer chasers and my attentions had been distracted dancing wobblies and missed some parts of conversation. It Turned out this man was interested in Kanacki because Kanacki has been all over in West Papa and new the region well. We suspected this fellow to be CIA? He was asking a lot of questions about the West Papa independence group in the Indonesian side of the island.
However that said the topic of conversation about losing fortunes came up. I can recall his name er....from beer memory was Denis
He sucked us into yarn about a fortune found and fortune lost.
He said to Hardluck and me when is treasure not a treasure?
We was a little stunned at the question... However he continued drinking and told the following story. Many years when was a young man he lived some where along the coast of new England. He in studying for University took break and rented a cabin on some lonely windswept coast of New England or one of the states up there. I cannot remember the exact place he said. He had brought his trusty dog and roamed the beaches fishing. And just generally enjoying walking along the windswept beaches being out in the fresh air with the dog having the time of his life.
During one of his walks with the dog he discovered a bank that had the sand eroded away and a small crevice that revealed the remains of old small sack or bag and a pile of round clay balls the size of marbles. He scooped them up and continued his walk playing with the dog as he walked up the beach. Then the idea came up of throwing and skipping the clay balls across the water in which he did with quite good fun watch his dog chase the balls as the disappeared into the waves.
And Denis continued as gulped down his Bourbon with a frown. It was a pleasure having that walk along that beach.... But it came with a sting. Denis on returning home to his parents house was in the process of getting his laundry done when 2 remaining clay balls fell out of his coat pocket and rolled along the floor. One had broken open and inside was diamond was inside. This as dear friends as you imagine yourselves now puzzled picked up the remaining clay ball and broke it open to another diamond.....And then it all hit like a ton of bricks in a massive panic attack when he realized that he had thrown about of hundred of the clay balls out into the ocean...
Gems in the past was some times smuggled as contraband and rolled in wet clan to prevent theft. Where they came from is anyones Guess and the New Engalnd coast is littered with shipwrecks, sumggling and pirates. And with that Densis signed and said "When is a treasure not a treasure? When your not prepared to look?
We toasted to that and he bought us another round....
Cheers
Crow
