ShovelBums 16th Anniversary
ShovelBums just turned 16 Years this week.
16 Years?
- 16 Years?!?!
- ~6,000 days.
- Nearly 17,000 active members.
- ~32,000+ positions filled.
- WTF? Seriously?
- Tens of thousands of sites located, documented, tested, excavated.
- So many sites lost to history.
- Millions of artifacts and features cataloged.
- Ungodly numbers of GPS points logged.
- Kilometers of maps made.
- Many more Kilometers of TP dropped in the blue lagoons and back filled STP's.
- A whole hell of a lot of liquor and ice tea (that for you Galen B) consumed.
- Drones rise in harmony with my beloved Kite Aerial Photography.
- Kindergartners born then are graduating college and starting their career.
- Great friends lost to time, space, and becoming what we study.
- New friends found.
- First trowels broken or lost after a lifetime of love and respect.
- First trowels sharpened at field school.
- Great people leave the profession.
- New people join the profession.
- Degrees earned.
- Tenure for a few.
- Companies grow
- Everyone laughing or groaning when someone says "That belongs in a museum!".
- Sunsets tonight on sites worldwide with people who have used ShovelBums
Damn
Damn damn damn.
That is pretty cool.
And here I am, R. Joe, riding on your coattails.
Because none of this.
I mean NONE of this.
Would happen if it was not for you.
Thank you. Seriously.
You people fucking rock.
As always. My sincere thanks to James Colburn who has helped moderate these postings all these years to make sure you only see relevant postings. And to my friends the original Pocket_Gophers at the University of Arkansas who were the first to hear of my crazy idea for an archaeology jobs mailing list, the first to join, and the first to send out the word about ShovelBums to their as yet unnamed "social media" contacts. To my mom, who arguably, coined the term ShovelBums, in a humorous response of what to call my career when I was still on the road. And to my wife Kristy, who supports everything I do with ShovelBums and helped finance it in the early years.
If you have ever found a job or field school through ShovelBums and feel like buying me a beer (that was always the deal) you can use the link at http://www.ShovelBums.org
Thank you all again. I know it sounds kind of corny. But I mean it. The recognition I get when other arch's meet me when I rarely get to a conference and the positive things they say about ShovelBums makes me aware it has had an impact far beyond any I ever dared imagine. Last year two people completely unconnected to each other within about 20 minutes of each other both called me a folk-hero. I am not sure if that is a step down or up from being called famous (and one time even a god, a title I hang on to simply to annoy close peers who say my head is to big ;-) but since the titles are all unpaid, I'll take what I get and not complain.
I look forward to another year of facilitating your search for crews and jobs. And as always, if you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate to drop me a note.
Best,
R. Joe
