"I'm gonna be RICH!"

My oldest son's class is taking a field trip to go gem mining. There are lots of mines here in North Carolina, most of which have open-air flumes. My son is convinced he is going to find enormous gems that will bring him great wealth.

When I was the same age, I used to walk around holding a forked tree branch just so, convinced that I could discover water, gems, or maybe even oil! in my own backyard and then promptly retire.

dowsing
noun
Dowsing is a controversial method of divination which dowsers say empowers them to find water, metals, gem stones and hidden objects by carrying some form of stick and watching its motion while walking over a piece of land. However repeated tests under controlled conditions have failed to provide support for this claim.

Dowsers, sometimes known as diviners, also use a forked branch of a tree, bent pieces of metal or plastic wire, or a small pendulum. Some people use no pointing device at all.
"dowsing." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2005. Answers.com GuruNet Corp. 19 Sep. 2005. http://www.answers.com/topic/dowsing-1

I'll note at this time that while I never found water nor oil (nor anything, really), while looking at information for this entry, I realized that according to the great majority of the dowsing community, I was holding the dowsing rod incorrectly the entire time!

I held it palms down, as seen above. Apparently, one is supposed to hold it like so.

I could have been long retired by now.