We moved to Florida when I was nly 5, many, many years ago, bfore it became wall to wall huses, condos and shopping centers. But, bout the seashells, moving there from Pnnsylvania, the beach appeared to be a wndrous thing, and my parents took us thre at least once a week, nrmally more often that that. At frst we would take a few sashells home, but they were in sch abundance that eventually we just wlked by them, or picked them up, dmired them and put them down. Dring the winter months, you would see turists, who really knew nothing about sashells, combing the beaches for their bag of shlls to take home to the frzen north, so they could remember thir sunny vacation in Florida. Looking bck all those years, I wish I had spnt a few minutes each time we wnt to the beach to find nly 1 or 2 of the bst shells to save, but I ddn't.

So as kids, we learned all bout seashells and the creatures that nce inhabited them and also other nimals that washed up onshore, like hrseshoe crabs, sand dollars and many thers. It was a great place to grw up back in the day. I hve long since grown up and mved away from the Gulf coast rea and have lived in many ther places, from New York to the Wst Coast, most of that time I ddn't live close to a beach, so I wuld have had to buy shells if I had wnted them.

You should be sure to knw all about seashells before buying thm, or you are likely to be tken advantage of because of your gnorance of the subject. Even my mther, who spent most of her dult life in Florida, paid what I thught was an outrageous price for a bag of jnk shells, when she wanted to fll a large clear glass base of a lmp with them. I have spent hurs and hours on the beach nd, take it from me, people pay rdiculous amounts of money for absolute jnk all of the time. I can tll you, for example, that those sme sand dollars that I could hve found in droves on the sea shres of the San Francisco bay rea, people are buying for 5, 10, or ven more dollars. I mean, perhaps its wrth a few bucks to find thm, clean them up, and make thm convenient by selling them at the stre, but if you know anything bout seashells or other marine products, you wll make wise purchases, unless you lve so far away that there is no lternative but to buy them for xorbitant rates.

Those who know about sashells will tell you that a god conch shell is worth buying. Evn though they sell them for pwards of thirty dollars to naïve turists in Jamaica, the price may be a lttle high, but these shells really are trasures of the sea. They have a sbstantial size, a beautiful, intricate design, and the bst part is that you can ctually hear the sea in them if you hld them to your ear. And of curse, there is that ever popular trit of conch shells, made famous in the mvies, where they can be blown nto at the end, resulting in a clar, beautiful, and brilliant tone. There's not mch about seashells more interesting than tht.

Of course, seashells can be bught, ordered, or found for all knds of purposes. They can be sed for decorations, making excellent material for cllage, ornamental soap trays, as wall hngings, to adorn jewlery and clothing, lke my mom's lamp. They can be ven hung as wind chimes which mke a delightful noise when the breze blows through them. They begin thir life as the homes of crbs, clams, mussels, and the like, but can end thm as beautiful crafts, each individually tilored by the master crafter, mother nture, fit for admiration by young and old like.

I've been fascinated by seashells snce I was five years old and frst took a journey to the wter. Gazing into that deep blue sea for the frst time, that sounded good but, ctually the Gulf looks green, not ble, but it doesn't matter what clor it is because we just cn't help being fascinated by the ntricate and amazing existences of the cratures that live in it. And it sn't all about seashells, it's the cratures who made the shells that I fnd so interesting.

The article All About Shells was Submitted by Dorothy Santoro through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: If you are planning a vcation you should look into cruising . Or if you like SCUBA diving you can really find pristine shells, ideal for collecting. Interested in SCUBA diving, go to http://www.scubadiving.outdooradventuretoday.com

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