Stew Crook came up with the "Buddy Rule" first, where we dug a killer '30s dump together, and we were pretty sure we finished it, but he went back the next spring and found 5 green Lucky Ale O/Is. He gave me the 2nd best one. I said let's go back next Sunday but he couldn’t go, so I went solo. I was determined to find the 6th Lucky Ale but with a week's worth of pine needles dropping, I couldn't see where he dug last. But I was finding fresh pits left and right, that had never been dug. I found 6 Lisco cones and 15 Rainier cones. I gave Stew the 2nd best Lisco.
Another time after that, Dale and I were killing it at a campground. We just finished a 30s pit that had Town Clubs & Humboldt O/Is, and found another pit, but we still had a 6-hr drive home so we had to save it for next time. Next time came, but Dale couldn’t go but Carl Scheurman & John Smoller did. We headed straight to the pit, and it turned out to be from the 1960s. We moved on to the next camping area and scored huge with a pit full of 38 Horluck’s Vienna O/Is with the castle, among other cans. We gave Dale the 4th best.
And more recently, I was digging with Carl & Scott and found a small pit of 6 shot up Leidigs. I knew there were more Leidigs somewhere, but Scott wanted to leave. The next summer Dale was in the area, and I sent him to that camp. He was by himself and detected 3 big pits, but he figured I dug them all last summer. He went into town to get supplies and got a call from his daughter, who was having car trouble in Idaho. He landed up pulling the engine and never got back. As we talked, I told him I only dug 2 big pits, that the 3rd was virgin. As luck would have it, Rusty & Scott were with me in Oregon, and we things weren’t looking too good for us. So, I told them lets go to the Leidigs camp, Scott agreed. We found that 3rd pit and opened it up. It was full of 72 Leidgis O/Is…. We gave Dale the best one!
The moral of this story is, take care of your digging buds, and they will take care of you! That's the true spirit of the Rusty Bunch!
