50+ Lifestyles

April – A Month for Diamonds

By Eloise Graham

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend – or so the saying goes.

The diamond is the birthstone for April. Chemically speaking, it is merely carbon whose atoms are arranged in a crystal structure called a diamond cubic. A big chunk of black coal is also chemically carbon but with a different structure to the atoms. With years of pressure in the earth’s crust, diamonds are formed and mined. The April birthstone can be mined in, geologically speaking, the older parts of the earth. Africa has many mines. Russia produces approximately half of the diamonds mined. Yes, the United States even has an active mine found in the Crater of Diamond Mines near Murfreesboro, Pine County, Arkansas.

The beautiful birthstone, that graces the hand, ears and neck of many a lady, has sparkling, eye-catching qualities. The beauty of the stone is graded by the four C’s; carat, cut, color and clarity. The carat is the weight of the stone. The cut is the shape and can be quite varied. The marquise cut is also called the football or boat cut because of its elongated shape. The emerald or square has beveled edges. The round is circular in shape with many facets on the underside. The cut can affect the brilliance of the stone. If it is cut either too deep or too shallow the light refraction will not be as brilliant.  Color can vary due to chemical “contaminants” in the structure. Diamonds can take on a blue, pink, or yellow tone depending on what other minerals might be present. Clarity is the least important factor in grading the diamond. All diamonds have imperfections, the blemishes and small inclusions that cannot be seen by the naked eye.

There is another diamond that is really important in April – the baseball diamond.

All across the country, the shout “PLAY BALL”, the crack of the bat and the song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” are heard. For many years, Opening Day was in early April, but recently Opening Day is in late March. In 2018 it was stated that Opening Day was the earliest it had ever been, March 29. Now in 2019, it was even earlier – March 28. All MLB teams are presently scheduled to start that day. The Quad City River Bandits have announced they will open their seventh season as the Class-A affiliate of the Houston Astros on April 4th with a home game against the Burlington Bees. Game time is 6:35 p. m.

Just a note to end on –

Did you know that Aprilophbia is the fear of April Fool’s Day?