Artifact 3: Memoir of my own

Shelling
By:  Lisa Bowen

No one ever knows what gifts the ocean waves may wash on the beach overnight.  Hoping the day would lead to discovery, we rose early and walked down the beach in silence.  The ocean panorama was beautiful.  The sun was up and sparkled on top of the water.  People were awake and wandering along the beach, but overall the scene was quiet and serene.  As we approached the water's edge, we turned to the left, our eyes fixed on the shore.

Aunt Maryann was an expert at shelling; her condominium decor reflected her love of the sea.  She had baskets filled with colorful shells, and along the bookshelves, she displayed beautiful purple sea urchins that she had carefully cleaned and dried out.  My aunt even had two books on Florida shells to help classify what each shell was.  Other than a quick flip through her book, I was clueless as to what shells to look for.

After a few minutes of walking, we noticed a line of seaweed that had been swept half way up the beach.  We decided to see if there were any treasures in the seaweed.  As we moved closer and gained a better look of the gathered seaweed, re realized that mounds of shark eye shells had also been blown in.  Before now, my aunt had only found a handful of shark eye shells.  She was stunned to see them lined up along the beach.  Right away, we set to work looking for unbroken shells that no longer had a snail inside.  Knowing that this many shark eye shells in one place was uncommon, my aunt was determined to pick up as many as possible.  After a short while I noticed that she had begun to step on the slimy snails while twisting and pulling the shell.  I gave her a questioning look.  She smiled at me and replied, "I figure they are washed up her for a reason."  I contemplated her response for a moment and then realized that she was right.  The snails were on this shore because they could no longer survive in the ocean. It was as if the ocean had spit them upon the shore, knowing that we would find them and marvel at their beauty.  I joined in with her technique of stepping and twisting.  It didn't take us long to fill the bottom of our shelling bags with shark eye shells.

After finding so many shark eyes shells, we were excited to continue on our journey.  We made our way out to a rocky point.  Fortunately, it was still low tide, and we were able to find our way around the rocks to the other side.  As we walked the shore, I was amazed to see that the beach was scattered with broken sea shells.  By leaping out on the rocks, we were able to find conch, whelk, tulip, olive, and clam shells.  The shells that I placed in my shelling bag were diverse in color, texture, and shape.  I was more than pleased with the treasures that I found.

We could not stay on the other side of the point long because soon the high tide would come in.  As we made our way back around the point and walked the beach back to the condo, we chattered about our ocean treasures.  We were almost back when I stumbled upon a nine-pointed star fish.  I carefully cradled the star in my hands and carried it back with us.

When we returned, my aunt got out the bleach and dental pick.  We right away set to work; we scraped at the shells and then placed them in bleach to soak for the day.  Later, we would pain them with Elmers Glue to help strengthen their shells and give them a hint of shine.

That night, I sat down with my ocean treasures and researched them in Aunt Maryann's books.  I looked up information about all the different shells that I had found.  I discovered that I had found the Florida state shell, a horse conch that was a vibrant color of orange.  I also wanted to know about my nine-pointed star fish.  I had found five-pointed star fish before, but never one with nine points.  My aunt's book told me that nine pointed stars are rare to fine with all nine points.  This is because as a defense mechanism they often detach one of their legs and try to escape as their predator munches on their single limb.  My starfish had all nine points.  One of the points was wobbly, but all nine points were still attached.  I had found something that was rare and unique.

I began the day not knowing what the ocean had laid out for me.  Not every shelling day was as successful as this one, but that is what made this one so special.  It was as if the waves has left those gifts there just for me to find.