It is with great pleasure, that I announce our newest Member of the Month. He is someone who has contributed much to this site with his participation. Please welcome our honoree, Sailorjoe! Thank you so much for every thing you do.
I appreciate the honor of being chosen to be the MOTM. It puts me in with some very fine company. I joined our Forum in Jan. 2015 after a long absence from exercising my archaeological interests. Currently, I am retired from the working world which happened May, 2000 a few months after I turned 60 so that tells you folks how old I am. I was born in south Mississippi where my father was teaching in a Mississippi junior college shortly before the outbreak of WWII. After the outbreak of the war my dad entered the U.S. Navy and mom, brother and I moved back to Tennessee where she was from and we lived with my grandparents till the war was over. I was educated in the public schools of Tennessee and after college and graduate school began working for the State of Alabama as a fisheries biologist. From there I went on to work as a fisheries biologist for the State of Tennessee and then for the federal government in Alaska where I moved in 1976 and where I continued to live full time till I retired. After retiring, I moved back to the lower 48 and now live near Gulf Shores, AL. I’ve been married to the same woman for 55 years and am a father and grandfather.
Prior to moving to Alabama in the mid 1960’s I had collected a few points mostly by accident while I was engaged in other outdoor activities. But it was after I moved to Alabama that I began to actively look for points and other Indian artifacts. I met other collectors and was introduced to the Alabama Archaeology Society and joined the local chapter. I benefitted greatly from my association with that chapter and some of its members, particularly James Cambron and David Hulse, the authors of Handbook of Alabama Archaeology. Living in that area provided me the opportunity to collect from one of the richest areas of Native American prehistory in the country and I began to spend a big part of my free time looking for artifacts. It wasn’t long before I amassed a large collection. When work took me back to Tennessee I continued to do some hunting. Then when I moved to Alaska all my artifact hunting immediately ceased. Most of my artifact collection I stored in the basement at my father-in-law’s home in Tennessee. I took to Alaska 4 frames that were mounted by professional picture framers that I displayed at home and a couple of cigar boxes full of my favorite points that I would occasionally like to look at. When I returned to the lower 48 and moved to the Gulf Coast it became apparent that I would no longer collect anymore and my in-laws who were getting really old were asking me when I was ever going to get all those “rocks” out of their basement. I didn’t have room to store them and didn’t really have room to display the 4 mounted frames so it was with some reluctance that I decided to sell my collection which I did as a complete collection, along with my topographical site maps showing the number and location of most of my Alabama sites and notes that provided provenance for much of what I had collected. I sold the collection intact to a fairly well known collector and artifact restorer. I did keep a few points to pass on to my son who has fond memories of going “arrowhead” hunting with me as a small child. It was while doing research on my few remaining points that I decided to join the forum so I could get help with questions I had regarding typology and these points are the ones I have used to do my little “show and tell”. As for my forum name. I used that name to describe the passion of my retirement years. I became a sailor and have taken my boat to the Caribbean Sea and Central America several times but am having to stop that also as age is starting to catch up with me. Now it seems as if I’m an “armchair” sailor as I am an “armchair” artifact hunter. In my younger days I enjoyed white water rafting and canoeing, hunting and fishing. And for a long time I had a sled dog team which I used for recreation. I was never a racer. Now I just do a little bit of fishing and do research on my family tree. We enjoy traveling and camping. I very much enjoy my participation in this forum and wish to contribute what little I know to the advancement of this really great hobby. I’ve learned much more than I’ve contributed so in that sense it has been time very well spent.
I appreciate the honor of being chosen to be the MOTM. It puts me in with some very fine company. I joined our Forum in Jan. 2015 after a long absence from exercising my archaeological interests. Currently, I am retired from the working world which happened May, 2000 a few months after I turned 60 so that tells you folks how old I am. I was born in south Mississippi where my father was teaching in a Mississippi junior college shortly before the outbreak of WWII. After the outbreak of the war my dad entered the U.S. Navy and mom, brother and I moved back to Tennessee where she was from and we lived with my grandparents till the war was over. I was educated in the public schools of Tennessee and after college and graduate school began working for the State of Alabama as a fisheries biologist. From there I went on to work as a fisheries biologist for the State of Tennessee and then for the federal government in Alaska where I moved in 1976 and where I continued to live full time till I retired. After retiring, I moved back to the lower 48 and now live near Gulf Shores, AL. I’ve been married to the same woman for 55 years and am a father and grandfather.
Prior to moving to Alabama in the mid 1960’s I had collected a few points mostly by accident while I was engaged in other outdoor activities. But it was after I moved to Alabama that I began to actively look for points and other Indian artifacts. I met other collectors and was introduced to the Alabama Archaeology Society and joined the local chapter. I benefitted greatly from my association with that chapter and some of its members, particularly James Cambron and David Hulse, the authors of Handbook of Alabama Archaeology. Living in that area provided me the opportunity to collect from one of the richest areas of Native American prehistory in the country and I began to spend a big part of my free time looking for artifacts. It wasn’t long before I amassed a large collection. When work took me back to Tennessee I continued to do some hunting. Then when I moved to Alaska all my artifact hunting immediately ceased. Most of my artifact collection I stored in the basement at my father-in-law’s home in Tennessee. I took to Alaska 4 frames that were mounted by professional picture framers that I displayed at home and a couple of cigar boxes full of my favorite points that I would occasionally like to look at. When I returned to the lower 48 and moved to the Gulf Coast it became apparent that I would no longer collect anymore and my in-laws who were getting really old were asking me when I was ever going to get all those “rocks” out of their basement. I didn’t have room to store them and didn’t really have room to display the 4 mounted frames so it was with some reluctance that I decided to sell my collection which I did as a complete collection, along with my topographical site maps showing the number and location of most of my Alabama sites and notes that provided provenance for much of what I had collected. I sold the collection intact to a fairly well known collector and artifact restorer. I did keep a few points to pass on to my son who has fond memories of going “arrowhead” hunting with me as a small child. It was while doing research on my few remaining points that I decided to join the forum so I could get help with questions I had regarding typology and these points are the ones I have used to do my little “show and tell”. As for my forum name. I used that name to describe the passion of my retirement years. I became a sailor and have taken my boat to the Caribbean Sea and Central America several times but am having to stop that also as age is starting to catch up with me. Now it seems as if I’m an “armchair” sailor as I am an “armchair” artifact hunter. In my younger days I enjoyed white water rafting and canoeing, hunting and fishing. And for a long time I had a sled dog team which I used for recreation. I was never a racer. Now I just do a little bit of fishing and do research on my family tree. We enjoy traveling and camping. I very much enjoy my participation in this forum and wish to contribute what little I know to the advancement of this really great hobby. I’ve learned much more than I’ve contributed so in that sense it has been time very well spent.
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