THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406020176
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ford Reid
DATELINE: 940605 LENGTH: Medium
What they will have discovered, really, is a bushel basket full of shells that someone collected on a vacation to the beach and took home with him.
{REST} What is it that makes us pick up stuff off the beach and take it home? If most tourists found the same stuff in their backyards they would toss it faster than you can say Herbert Bonner Bridge.
Before he began specializing and became the undisputed rope collecting champion of the western world, my father used to collect shells. That was on an island on the Florida Gulf Coast and he found some wonderful shells.
The problem was, he often found wonderful shells still occupied by their rightful owners. Somewhere in central Alabama the car would begin to stink. Even though my mother would try to relocate the offending shells in a roadside park, the damage was done. The car continued to stink well into the winter.
The shells that made it home would be admired for a few days, then stored in boxes in the basement with all of the other shells from all of the other vacations.
My older sister became so accustomed to the stench of rotting bivalves that she associates that smell with vacation. She likes to keep a couple of malodorous shells around the house to remind her of the beach.
In case you haven't noticed, the Outer Banks is not the best place in the world to collect shells. Oh, you can sometimes find huge sea clams that make fine ashtrays, but anything more delicate than that is likely to have been smashed by the waves.
A few weeks ago, I spent a couple of days on Ocracoke with a friend visiting from California who was determined to find shells.
Morning and evening, we walked miles along the beach. We walked down at water's edge and we walked high up near the dunes.
What we found, in miles and miles of walking, was one perfect Scotch bonnet. The Scotch bonnet is the North Carolina state shell, but for all of the hours that I have spent on the beach here I have seen few that were recognizable.
It is a pretty shell, especially to those who see beauty in strength and utility. If you swoon at Jeeps and dead-rise work boats you will love the Scotch bonnet.
Still, my friend was disappointed.
But I had a great time. On the theories that beauty in the eye of the beholder and that you take what you can get, I began collecting shell fragments.
The small pieces of shells that have been worn down and polished by the sand have a beauty all their own.
Although I was very selective, collecting only the best specimens, I still ended every walk with two pockets full of fragments.
As soon as I get around to it, I am going to sort them out, put them in a box and store them in the basement. It just seems like the right thing to do.
by CNB