Glimmer #33 Shells

A happy obsession

When I was in the fifth grade, well over 50 years ago, my parents took me and my siblings to the Museum of Science in Boston. I don’t remember too many specifics, except a see-through woman and man with their insides lit up. I remember that my Dad was excited by all of it because he was a man of science.

But I know that after seeing the displays, we stopped at the gift shop. I was able to pick out one special thing to take home. I found a gorgeous brown cowrie shell, marked with creamy spots. I fell in love with its smooth surface and the small curved little “mouth” on its bottom side.

I made that shell the starting point for my fifth-grade project, about which I remember very very little. I remember that I studied marine life, made a poster about marine biology, and used the cowry shell in my presentation.

Then I forgot about it for the most part.

But when I was a young mother of three, my husband arranged a family vacation to Assateague Island on the Maryland coast. On that beautiful windswept beach, I rediscovered the magical beauty of seashells. We found many small clamshells, some shiny slipper shells, and a few beautiful whelks. I started my grown-up shell collection.

Over the many years since then, I have been to beaches in Maine, New Hampshire…