Saturday, February 12, 2005

fossil memories

I've been thinking about this all day. I don't know why; maybe because it's rainy outside. Sometimes little special moments of happiness come back to me and keep me occupied in reverent memory.

I'm remembering a girl scout field trip, some 38 lonnnnng years ago. I was nine, still living in West Lafayette, Indiana, and our girl scout troop headed off to Attica (I'm pretty sure that is where we went) or somewhere nearby where there was the most incredible fossil bed. I'd never seen anything like it before in my life and as I remember it, there were treasures scattered all over the field, easily found and won. I found a partial trilobite fossil that day (and lots of other little fossils not as readily remembered) and I felt like I'd won the lottery!

I remember it was muddy and drizzly and cold; not sure what time of year it was but I'm pretty darn sure it wasn't January... probably March or April. But any thoughts of misery evaporated in the face of that geological wonderland. That was easily one of the coolest, most exciting field trips I'd ever taken up to that point; even better than the Coca~Cola bottling plant where they gave us each a free bottle of coke at the end of the tour ~ and if you knew how much a Coke already meant to me even back then, you'd know that is saying alot.

So I searched in vain today, trying to find some information about that place. And I'm amazed that I found nothing. Leaving me to wonder if I'm not remembering exactly where it was, or if it closed down or just disappeared off the face of the earth? Maybe I need to have an exact name or something? It is ancient history after all, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised but its just sort of a shock to my senses. I have this vivid memory but no trace of the origin of it any longer.

But in my search I did find a couple of really cool sites:

The Fossil Site
A Guide to the Order of Trilobites

All my life I've been utterly fascinated by the natural world; especially fossils and rocks and gems. My daughter has inherited this same passion as well so maybe it's hereditary or something. I don't know why I get such a special thrill finding and examining them. Actually, I'm pretty much the same way about beautiful fallen leaves or feathers that get left for me to find by my neighborhood birds.

But the very first experience of that thrill came from that long ago field trip. I will never forget it...even though it has forgotten me or somehow got swallowed up or lost in time.


enrolled trilobites
one of the many cool images
found at Paleozoic Gallery
Posted by etherealfire :: 8:37 PM :: 0 Comments:

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