What Started You Collecting?

[JohnJ]

My grandpa used to take me to the museum all the time. He is a man with a 6th grade education. He's also a WWII and Korea vet. Science has always fasinated him to no end and I got that gene from him. I love showing him my fossils and seeing the gears in his head turn. He had a stroke several years ago and has been confined to a wheelchair since. It is a miracle he's still around and I am D*mned proud I was able to let him finally touch a real mammoth molar, or a sloth claw, or a dinosaur tooth, or whatever else I have...great feeling.

Fossils aren't that big of a deal to many of us here, since that is our hobby, but for some people, the idea of holding a REAL fossil is magical.

Nick, that's what it's all about...good for him.

[jpc]

Way back in 82 I did a stint as a prairie dog research assistant at Wind Cave Natl Park in the Black Hills. I was a college kid, Massachusetts native, getting edumacated in Chicago. On of our days off one of the older students took us out to the Badlands where I found an oreodont skull and bones. I was hooked. That skull is still one of the prides of my collection. If I had known what I was doing I would have had a nice skeleton also. I've collected several additional oreodont skuls since, but that one is the best.

[Megalodon Man]

One day while surfing a hurricane swell in jacksonville florida, I dropped my wax while walking down the beach. When I stopped to pick it up (a well waxed board in a neccessity in hurricane swell), I found a 2 inch great white tooth. From then on I have been hooked. I love the uniqueness of each fossil I find. Nature will never make another one like it, which makes it special to me. i am sure you all know what I mean...