My wife Rita and I have been frequenting the  Monticello Community Center over the past year.

In April we saw a notice there about the annual hobby day put on by members of the Senior Center.

We imagined it would include seniors displaying their different collectibles, crafts and hobbies - things like quilting, painting, woodworking and pottery. Unfortunately, neither one of us had anything similar on our activity list.

The one hobby that we do a few times a week is metal detecting, but we weren’t sure how we could display what we do as detectorists.

But we signed up anyway, assuming we could bring our detectors and a few of the things we had found, then demonstrate how to use the detector and equipment to the other seniors.

It all sounded simple - until one of the seniors told us the event was held so local school kids could come by and learn about the seniors’ hobbies. She said there would be about 200 second and third graders from Monticello schools coming at different times throughout the day.

That changed everything.   Suddenly, we had to figure out how to deal with a bunch of kids who would be asking questions and wanting to try out our detectors. Using a metal detector indoors isn’t ideal, since the detector would beep on all the nails, screws, pipes and electrical lines under the floor.

So we came up with a plan that we hoped would work. We bought two small plastic kiddie swimming pools - about four feet wide and a foot deep. Then we got eight bags of potting mix. I went to the bank and got 50 rolls of pennies. The idea was to fill the pools with dirt and bury the pennies.

We already owned a dozen pinpointers - small flashlight-sized detectors that could pick up a metal signal from up to three inches away. Some kids could take turns trying to detect the pennies, while others could look at some the things we had found displayed on our table. Still others could be given a demonstration of how the real detectors worked.

On the day of the event, we still weren’t sure how our plan would work. But when the kids came marching through the door, we quickly found out.

The two pools were like magnets. Kids were circled around the pools jabbing the pinpointers in the dirt and pulling out pennies. Others surrounded the table, looking through an assortment of keys, rings, tokens, toy cars and miscellaneous non-precious jewelry.

For hours there were constant questions about the found items, pinpointers and the “big” metal detectors with all the knobs and buttons.

We were completely exhausted by the time the room finally cleared out and we cleaned up all the dirt.

But, we decided we’ll be back again next year.