collecting memories

As long as I can remember, I’ve loved things pertaining to history and geology.

Okay, go ahead. Cue the jokes, comments, snide remarks.

Seriously though. Rocks. Dinosaur fossils. Ancient civilizations.

In First Grade, I had a really impressive rock collection. But a lot of young boys did back then. Rocks were what Pokemon cards were for my brother’s generation.

No? Nobody?

Okay, maybe I chose the wrong metaphor. But rocks were way cool.

I even studied the different kinds of rocks! You had your three main categories: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. I knew how they were formed, where you could find them, how to distinguish them…

Maybe I’m just making a case for why I was/am a geek.

I took the bus home from school, and the bus stop was about a block away from where we lived. My dad tells me that he would stand by the window and watch me as I made the 3 minute walk back to our apartment.

Well… It took 3 minutes for everyone else. I dragged it out to 30 minutes. He said I would just idly walk, peering at the sky and the things around me, stopping every other step to kneel down and grab a rock/stone off the ground. I’d curiously examine it, turning it over, mulling over it. If I liked it, I would proceed to put it in my backpack. If I didn’t, I would put it back down, and move on to the next one. Apparently I did this with leaves too… But that’s just silly, right?

My backpack was heavy with rocks, which settled at the bottom of the bag. When I got home, I would put them out on my shelf, on display for all the world to see. Usually, “all the world” was just me. But I was amazed at rocks! At the process they went through. At their age. Their seeming commonality, and yet uniqueness. How God brought all these things to be.

Whatever happened to collecting things??? I know other kids had their baseball and basketball cards. My cousin Debbie had stickers. I even had old and foreign coins.

We weren’t just glued to the latest video game. Cell phones were just things Zack Morris had.

Maybe we are in a totally different era. My sister laughs when I tell her about my love of rocks. Maybe legitimately so. But maybe staring at a screen is all we have time for. Staring at a screen like the one I’m staring at as I type this. But surely there are things in our lives that are not just technology-driven.

Maybe I’m just a nerd.

Do you remember those days? Break off the chains of circuitry every now and then. Pick up a hobby.

Pick up a rock.

What did you/do you collect?

5 thoughts on “collecting memories

  1. Shells. Perfume bottles. Great Design pieces. Birthday cards. And rocks. But I don’t collect it scientifically like you. I just grab a rock from different places I’ve been and write the date and place on it with a sharpie. That’s my souvenir.

    You’re a nerd.

  2. memories. anything that ties to a significant memory… does that count? i also have a billion books…. a book collection… ohh and magazines… well i used to *ahem*

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