From Vicky Wall:
This isn't a "lost shell story" but a "revived shell story". My dad used to travel
alot for the International Monetary Fund. One trip, (I wish I could have gone
too!!) was to New Guinea. He's not a shell collector but had been around me enough
to know to pick up anything for me, on beaches, in restaurants etc. Well, one day
a sweet little child brought him a tray full of Telescope Snails since the kids
knew he was collecting shells for me. Dad finished up with his business a week
later, meanwhile the telescope shells had been placed in baggies in his suitcase.
He gets on the plane, and gets home a few days later to Northern Va. That
particular suitcase had mainly souvenirs, so it was the last one my mom cleaned
out. About 2 weeks later, she gets to the suitcase, and sets out all the shells to
clean and send to me. She called me that night and said she about had a heart
attack when she turned around and the telescope snails were crawling all over the
kitchen table!!
Those hardy little mollusks had managed to stay alive about 3-4 weeks. I told my
dad he would have been sooooo sorry if they had died in that suitcase. When my dad
told his New Guinea contact the story, the man laughed and told him that they ate
those snails and the little child had brought them as a gift to be eaten at
dinner. They aren't the most pretty of shells, but they are some of my favorites.
I think the stories surrounding our treasures are as special as the shells.

Peter Egerton wrote:

> I can't say I've lost shells around the house, but I have decided finally to
> order a specimen of something that I've wanted for years, only to realize
> after I got it that I'd already aquired one years ago, put it away and
> forgotten all about it...shows how much I really needed it in the first place.
> (I did this with a CD the other week, and having 2 of the same CD is NOT the
> same as having 2 of the same shell species!)
>
> Peter Egerton,
> Vancouver, Canada (I think...)
>
> >"You say you don`t have enough space for storing  your shells?  You say you
> can`t find some of them since you dismantled that last exhibit?  Is this
> what`s getting you down, little old buddy?  Well, never fear!  Hold your
> head down lower and go look among the "dust bunnies" under the beds in your
> house, AND....you might do what yours truly did this morning.  She found a
> whole box of pectens hiding under the bed in the master bedroom!   I wonder
> why I thought I was missing a pecten or two.  Egads, I must be getting
> old(er?)  It`s a good thing I have been recataloguing.  (Don`t be as dumb as
> I was!)  Have you found some of your shells in odd places?   At least, I was
> able to laugh at myself and reaquanted myself with some of my lovely Chlamys
> senatoria!    Linda
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Peter Egerton, Vancouver, Canada
> Collector of worldwide Mollusca,
> student of zoology and computers for life.
> The beginnings of my website:
> http://www.intergate.bc.ca/personal/seashell/index.html
> -------------------------------------------------------