grinner
06-25-2004, 10:20 AM
Enigma of rock puzzles woman
By D. PAUL HARRIS
Of the Post-Dispatch
06/21/2004
Mildred Price of Jennings loves to collect art and odd or unusual items. She also loves flowers and the look of a well-manicured lawn. She spends a lot of time keeping her yard in great shape.
So on a warm day in July 1982, Price was working in the yard of her boarding house in midtown St. Louis and happened to rake over an unusual rock. She said it was brownish-black, semi-oblong and smooth. It fit in the palm of her hand. She picked it up. It was solid and weighty.
As she stood admiring the rock, a man who worked for her noticed her looking at the rock and walked over to take a look. He told her that she needed to keep it because it was a special rock: a rock that grows.
Price, 74, now retired after working as a private-duty nurse, thought that sounded strange. Nevertheless, being a collector of unusual items, she put the rock in her yard and close to the fence. And that's where it stayed for about five years.
She says that in those years, she would check on the rock from time to time, and to her amazement, it would appear to be getting bigger.
Price, a mother of four and grandmother, shared with her family and close friends the tale of the growing rock. She was reluctant to talk about it to anyone else.
"I didn't want to tell anyone else, because I didn't want people to think I was going insane," she said. "If I told someone, they would have thought something was wrong with me."
Audrey Farrar, Price's older daughter, says her mother didn't talk to anybody about the rock because her mother probably was skeptical.
"We have all watched it grow over the years," says Farrar. "It wasn't like it was growing while you looked at it. It was like, from time to time you would see it and say, 'Well, yeah, OK.' I just wish that we had taken measurements of it before now, because everybody just thinks we are crazy."
Bill Brooks, a longtime family friend, says he has witnessed the rock's growth.
"When I first saw it, it was sitting in the corner of the yard," said Brooks. "It was a little rock, and over the years it's gotten bigger and bigger. I'm scared of that rock."
Price said fear often was the reaction when she showed the rock and then told the story behind it.
"When people see it, they are afraid of it, because I tell them it's my growing rock," she said. "They said they wouldn't even keep it in the house. They think it would do some harm to me. But I'm not afraid of it."
When she shows the rock now, it weighs about 32 pounds and has to be held with two hands. It's brownish-red on the top and dark brown on the bottom and is shaped like an extra-thick loaf of pumpernickel bread. It also resembles the shape of a human brain.
Price said she had made several attempts to find out more about the rock. One time she tried to call a television program asking viewers to call in about unusual items. But she couldn't get through. It made her decide to keep the rock inside.
About 11 years ago, she asked her grandson to find out whether one of his instructors at Meramec Community College could tell her anything about the rock.
She talked to an instructor, but only briefly because he was leaving town.
"He told me that there is such a thing as a growing rock, but it's very, very rare," said Price. "But when he told me he was about to leave, I just said all right. I thanked him for talking to me and hung up the phone. I didn't even think to ask his name or phone number or give him my phone number or tell him to call me when he returned or anything."
Price said she felt better after talking to the instructor because no one, except her yard man, had ever verified knowing anything about a growing rock.
Price remembers the instructor distinctly because, she says, he had an Asian accent. Her grandson told her he was Vietnamese. Attempts to find the instructor were unsuccessful. No one at the college had heard of him.
About nine years ago, Price and a friend took the rock to the St. Louis Science Center. She said the president of the center had taken her to his office and called in a staff geologist to examine the rock.
"He told him to test the rock to see if there was any radiation or a heartbeat," she said. "He did and found out that there was no radiation or heartbeat. I told him what size it was when I found it. And he said that somebody was probably changing the rocks on me or either it floated down the river and got that large. It hurt me so bad inside, I just started losing interest."
No one at the Science Center could recall the incident.
Her sister in-law encouraged her to take the rock to Washington University. A professor examined it and told Price that it was very unusual, probably 20,000 years old, and that there probably wasn't another rock like it in Missouri.
"I told him that it had grown that size; it wasn't that size when I found it. But he didn't pay me no mind. So I didn't say anything more," she said.
Recently, the rock was examined by Robert F. Dymek, a professor of geology in the Washington University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
"I don't believe that this rock could ever have grown," he concluded. "Perhaps somebody may have made a switch. This is a nice example of a boulder with a very smooth surface that could have been polished by the action of streams, water flowing over it, which would smooth it out.
"Or it could have been polished by having been transported in a glacier during the Ice Age. I think that's probably the most reasonable interpretation. The reason I say that is because of the material that it's made of. It looks to be like granite, very hard.
"A rock is, by definition, inorganic substance, so it doesn't grow. There are certain minerals - clay minerals, in particular - which if you make them wet will swell as the clays will absorb water."
He said most such rocks found in the St. Louis area would be derived from the bedrock, which is mainly limestone. He said Price's rock had traveled far.
"This particular boulder has been in the ground for many, many years," he added. "I wouldn't be surprised if we could say hundreds of thousands of years. I think if you gave it a billion years, it would not grow. I think a switch was pulled. This is granite, and granite doesn't grow. Rocks don't grow."
Dymek said the only way to find out more about the rock would be to saw it open. But Price doesn't want it destroyed.
Price maintains that the rock is the same one she picked up with one hand 22 years ago. Now in failing health, one of her greatest desires is to know the mystery of how the rock seems to grow.
"I know it's strange, but it's very special to me," she said. "It's just my pet rock. I rub it and say 'I don't know what you are, but God gave you to me for a reason.' I believe one day I will find out."
link (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County/7DD045C93D4BFD0086256EB800545C33?OpenDocument&Headline=Enigma+of+rock+puzzles+woman&tetl=1)
By D. PAUL HARRIS
Of the Post-Dispatch
06/21/2004
Mildred Price of Jennings loves to collect art and odd or unusual items. She also loves flowers and the look of a well-manicured lawn. She spends a lot of time keeping her yard in great shape.
So on a warm day in July 1982, Price was working in the yard of her boarding house in midtown St. Louis and happened to rake over an unusual rock. She said it was brownish-black, semi-oblong and smooth. It fit in the palm of her hand. She picked it up. It was solid and weighty.
As she stood admiring the rock, a man who worked for her noticed her looking at the rock and walked over to take a look. He told her that she needed to keep it because it was a special rock: a rock that grows.
Price, 74, now retired after working as a private-duty nurse, thought that sounded strange. Nevertheless, being a collector of unusual items, she put the rock in her yard and close to the fence. And that's where it stayed for about five years.
She says that in those years, she would check on the rock from time to time, and to her amazement, it would appear to be getting bigger.
Price, a mother of four and grandmother, shared with her family and close friends the tale of the growing rock. She was reluctant to talk about it to anyone else.
"I didn't want to tell anyone else, because I didn't want people to think I was going insane," she said. "If I told someone, they would have thought something was wrong with me."
Audrey Farrar, Price's older daughter, says her mother didn't talk to anybody about the rock because her mother probably was skeptical.
"We have all watched it grow over the years," says Farrar. "It wasn't like it was growing while you looked at it. It was like, from time to time you would see it and say, 'Well, yeah, OK.' I just wish that we had taken measurements of it before now, because everybody just thinks we are crazy."
Bill Brooks, a longtime family friend, says he has witnessed the rock's growth.
"When I first saw it, it was sitting in the corner of the yard," said Brooks. "It was a little rock, and over the years it's gotten bigger and bigger. I'm scared of that rock."
Price said fear often was the reaction when she showed the rock and then told the story behind it.
"When people see it, they are afraid of it, because I tell them it's my growing rock," she said. "They said they wouldn't even keep it in the house. They think it would do some harm to me. But I'm not afraid of it."
When she shows the rock now, it weighs about 32 pounds and has to be held with two hands. It's brownish-red on the top and dark brown on the bottom and is shaped like an extra-thick loaf of pumpernickel bread. It also resembles the shape of a human brain.
Price said she had made several attempts to find out more about the rock. One time she tried to call a television program asking viewers to call in about unusual items. But she couldn't get through. It made her decide to keep the rock inside.
About 11 years ago, she asked her grandson to find out whether one of his instructors at Meramec Community College could tell her anything about the rock.
She talked to an instructor, but only briefly because he was leaving town.
"He told me that there is such a thing as a growing rock, but it's very, very rare," said Price. "But when he told me he was about to leave, I just said all right. I thanked him for talking to me and hung up the phone. I didn't even think to ask his name or phone number or give him my phone number or tell him to call me when he returned or anything."
Price said she felt better after talking to the instructor because no one, except her yard man, had ever verified knowing anything about a growing rock.
Price remembers the instructor distinctly because, she says, he had an Asian accent. Her grandson told her he was Vietnamese. Attempts to find the instructor were unsuccessful. No one at the college had heard of him.
About nine years ago, Price and a friend took the rock to the St. Louis Science Center. She said the president of the center had taken her to his office and called in a staff geologist to examine the rock.
"He told him to test the rock to see if there was any radiation or a heartbeat," she said. "He did and found out that there was no radiation or heartbeat. I told him what size it was when I found it. And he said that somebody was probably changing the rocks on me or either it floated down the river and got that large. It hurt me so bad inside, I just started losing interest."
No one at the Science Center could recall the incident.
Her sister in-law encouraged her to take the rock to Washington University. A professor examined it and told Price that it was very unusual, probably 20,000 years old, and that there probably wasn't another rock like it in Missouri.
"I told him that it had grown that size; it wasn't that size when I found it. But he didn't pay me no mind. So I didn't say anything more," she said.
Recently, the rock was examined by Robert F. Dymek, a professor of geology in the Washington University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
"I don't believe that this rock could ever have grown," he concluded. "Perhaps somebody may have made a switch. This is a nice example of a boulder with a very smooth surface that could have been polished by the action of streams, water flowing over it, which would smooth it out.
"Or it could have been polished by having been transported in a glacier during the Ice Age. I think that's probably the most reasonable interpretation. The reason I say that is because of the material that it's made of. It looks to be like granite, very hard.
"A rock is, by definition, inorganic substance, so it doesn't grow. There are certain minerals - clay minerals, in particular - which if you make them wet will swell as the clays will absorb water."
He said most such rocks found in the St. Louis area would be derived from the bedrock, which is mainly limestone. He said Price's rock had traveled far.
"This particular boulder has been in the ground for many, many years," he added. "I wouldn't be surprised if we could say hundreds of thousands of years. I think if you gave it a billion years, it would not grow. I think a switch was pulled. This is granite, and granite doesn't grow. Rocks don't grow."
Dymek said the only way to find out more about the rock would be to saw it open. But Price doesn't want it destroyed.
Price maintains that the rock is the same one she picked up with one hand 22 years ago. Now in failing health, one of her greatest desires is to know the mystery of how the rock seems to grow.
"I know it's strange, but it's very special to me," she said. "It's just my pet rock. I rub it and say 'I don't know what you are, but God gave you to me for a reason.' I believe one day I will find out."
link (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County/7DD045C93D4BFD0086256EB800545C33?OpenDocument&Headline=Enigma+of+rock+puzzles+woman&tetl=1)