Please read this...Memories truly worth more than the money
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<p class="p1">As you may recall, I enjoy hunting for fossils. I enjoy learning about fossils. I just like fossils.</p><p class="p1">My interest in really old rocks goes back to when I was a kid, which was at about the same time that fossils were forming. </p><p class="p1">That interest piqued one year when I attended a YMCA camp somewhere near Grafton, Illinois. A group of campers went on a hunt, specifically to look for fossils. As luck would have it, I found a really nice fossil of a horn coral. I still have that rock. Somewhere. In a box upstairs, I think.</p><p class="p1">As it turned out, that fossil was the catalyst for what has proved to be a lifetime interest in old-time rocks. I still look for fossils, and, one of these days, I'm hoping to find a real treasure: the fossil of a complete trilobite.</p><p class="p1">Trilobite were buggy-looking creatures which wandered around on the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago. I've found a couple of real nice trilobite fossils during my adventures in the great outdoors, but never a whole one. I am confident that, at some point, the treasure will be found.</p><p class="p1">In all of the years that I've been looking for fossils, I've never considered the monetary value of the treasures that I've found.</p><p class="p1">With that in mind, I was interested in an item which a fellow traveler on the Journey through Life shared with me recently.</p><p class="p1">Seems that there was a big fossils auction on October 4 in Dallas, Texas. One of the featured items was, according to promotional information that was posted online, a "huge Jurassic fossil crocodile...in impeccable condition." The fossil crocodile was said to be a "quality specimen that is spectacular on every level."</p><p class="p1">And, apparently, the fossil crocodile was so spectacular that the auction house was estimating that it could bring $150,000 at the auction. Maybe more. Wow, I thought. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a rock. That is ridiculous. </p><p class="p1">To be honest with you, I've only ever paid for a rock one time. Seems like I spent a couple of bucks on a nice piece of quartz from Arkansas. Other than that, nope. Won't spend money on rocks.</p><p class="p1">I am pretty sure that I don't have any fossils which are worth $150,000. Truth be told, I am pretty sure that I don't have any fossils which are worth five cents. </p><p class="p1">That is good, because I don't really put any kind of a monetary value on the fossils that I find. That seems rather pointless. Part of the "value" that I find in such treasures simply has to do with the fossils themselves.</p><p class="p1">Then, there are the special memories which come with each find. I treasure the times when our family would just go out and look for rocks. </p><p class="p1">The memories became even more special when our daughter was involved with a fossil program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Through that program, we were able to go on fossil hunting adventures which took us to a former coal mine in Southern Illinois, a creek bed out in the middle of nowhere in Indiana and a fossil bed along the Ohio River just across from downtown Louisville, Kentucky.</p><p class="p1">Maybe that credit card commercial had it right. There are some times in life which have no monetary value: the moment, and the memory, is priceless.</p><p class="p2">***</p><p class="p1">Heyyyy...almost forgot...shameless plug time...book sale...Friends of Stinson...this weekend...Stinson Memorial Library...Anna...ColorFest...enjoy...</p>