My rock...13:30 Jul 04 2008
Times Read: 1,237
I’m posting this both for the joy of sharing this with my friends, and perhaps a little help from someone who might have more knowledge of these things than I do.
Irony might particularly enjoy this one…
This… is my rock.
My rock sits at the end of the driveway of the house I grew up in. It’s a rather large rock; probably about 7 feet long, if not more. My grandmother used to landscape it with flowers and sometimes even squash. It’s a landmark of where it sits. The house can be rather hard to find, but if you tell people it’s the driveway next to the big rock, they find it.
The rock, as my grandmother told me, was dug up as part of the excavation of the house foundation. The house was moved around 1956 to make room for the expansion of the interstate through the area, and when the new foundation was dug, this rock was unearthed.
Not being one to simply cast away something that could be so decorative as a big, gray rock, my grandmother had it placed at the top of the driveway.
But this rock that was dug up almost a half of a century ago also shows a bit of the history of where I live…
Some people don’t realize that this area, millions of years ago, was part of an ocean. A lot of sea life fossils can be found here, such as the
Penn-Dixie site. And this humble rock that has stood as a landmark on my property for so many years reveals this evidence as well.
Everywhere on the rock there are the remains of life that lived in the distant past. I’m guessing millions of years ago, but I could be wrong. Regardless, to me it is fascinating to study the details…
Above is a fossil, of what looks like a multi-segmented animal or coral.
I really wish I was better at identifying exactly what these fossils are…
The detail of this one is particularly remarkable to me. This was obviously a crustacean type creature judging by the segmented tail and fins. This is also one of the largest fossils on the rock.
I’m pretty sure this is coral.
This might be a similar creature to the one previous. This fossil actually sticks out of the rock about a half of an inch in height. Notice the crystallization of minerals where one would assume the head of the creature was.
Again, coral of some sort?
This fossil appears to be the bones of something. There is more coral to the left.
This might not be at all interesting to anyone else, but I think it’s amazing. My children often stand on the rock waiting for their school bus in the morning. We observe the fossils and discuss them. We study the details and use our imaginations to put ourselves in the world these animals lived in...
Study the details and let me know what you see...
My son wants to break open the rock to see if there is a dinosaur inside!
COMMENTS
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Morrigon
05:20 Jul 30 2008
Yeah but Dictionary sounds like it has the word dick in it which always made me giggle when I was in second grade.
But that's not important right now.
I loved it. I really did. Maybe it's just more personal, knowing you've written something and what I'm reading has come from your wonderful mind makes it all the more special.