Let me tell you a few things first

I love the beach. I love finding shells and other weird stuff while I am walking along the shore. I am what you would call a shore sheller! I don’t really like to snorkel so I wait until the ocean is done with the shells and pick them up as I go. I started shelling when I was around 6 or 7 when we lived in Long Island, New York. First, a little background on how we got to the beaches!

My dad was a postal inspector and my mom stayed home with my 2 brothers and me. She did not learn how to drive until she was in her 30’s and our neighbor, Mrs. Martin, would take my mom to the DMV so she could take the test. We spent a whole summer there once because she must have taken that test what seemed like 10 times. Mrs. Martin also had 3 kids with similar ages and she was kind enough to take my mom and us to the beaches. We would go to Long Beach, Short Beach and Jones Beach. Back then, in the early 70’s, you pretty much got your towels, a drink cooler and some PB&J sandwiches and headed to the beach. There was no sunscreen, umbrellas, charcuterie trays or and fancy drinks to keep you hydrated. It was Kool-Aid, chips, a sandwich and a towel.

We spent time burying one another and, in the ocean, playing in the waves. We liked to play near the pier because it was shaded however that is also where the jellyfish hung out and yes, I was stung a few times. No one went pee on my leg; it was just excruciating pain and maybe some ice cubes left over from the Kool-Aid. On the beach, I would find starfish and clams and anything else that looked interesting. I would take home the starfish, and my mom actually let me dry them out in the basement. You can imagine the smell because although the starfish were dead, they were not dried out in the sand!

When we moved to the mid-west to the western suburbs of Illinois, there was no ocean so I would buy little cactuses in little pots and put them on my windowsill. I would collect cat tails, rocks, leaves and acorns.

When I was older and could go on vacation without my parents, that is when the beach vacations started! I went to places like Cocoa Beach FL, Clearwater FL, San Diego CA, Puerto Penasco Mexico, Maui, Honolulu, Grayton Beach and most recently the Outer Banks. Our happy place though is in Southwest Florida in Bonita Springs. There we go to so many beaches from Marco Island all the way up to Bean Point near the Pan Handle. This is where I started making art out of the shells!

More to come!