Bones, Bones, Bones

It was the summer before 4th grade that our family moved from the only community I had ever known.  I was probably around eleven years old at the time. So instead of living in a small farming community anymore, we now lived in a dusty, old, Nevada, mining town. The almost-ghost-town, in the middle of nowhere, was situated in a fairly steep valley with the downtown area at the bottom and the houses perched on the hillsides. It was a fun place for us four kids to experience adventures and exploits.

Our small home was almost at the top of the hill, not the whole hill, just the part that had houses built on it. The only thing higher, as I remember it, was the school. Every Monday through Friday, my two brothers, sister and I would scramble up the steep hillside from our back yard, run across the dirt road, and there we were, at school.

After school and on weekends I loved carefully climbing down the steep embankment at the edge of the dirt road that ran in front of our house. Scooting around in the ageless dirt, dust and rocks while hanging onto sagebrush, I searched for treasures. And treasures I found, treasures by the shoe-box full.! Bones, wonderful bones. I found letter "O" bones, just like donuts. I found bones shaped like "T"s. I also found narrow skinny bones, and many more. If there was a bone to be found, I would find it. Knowing our town was very old fueled my imagination about those relics. I was smart enough to know I wouldn't be able to recreate an old miner (I hadn't found a pickax) or Paiute warrior, but I was fairly certain that in a year or two of continual searching and collecting, I could certainly recreate a dinosaur.

I have to smile at those wonderful,childhood days of naivete. Sadly, we moved back to my home town before I got to complete my hillside dig. Whatever happened to my treasures I'll never know. They mysteriously disappeared during the move. I suspect my parents had something to do with the loss. They had no idea the value of my artifacts, or the loss to science its disappearance caused .

I smile at the memories, but I laugh out loud trying to imagine what my reconstructed cow-pig-chicken thingy would have looked like. What in the world could I have created? Now that is not only a huge loss to the scientific community, but also a huge loss for Dr. Seuss.

Being blessed by the childhood memories,
Jan