Dear all,
         Please pardon the intrusion into your EMail boxes.  My boys got a
jealous that Daddy was spending a little more time on the computer with Ashley
rather than with them.  They wanted to say hi and let you know that they are
being exposed to shell collecting too (whether they like or not).  Our whole
family experiences shells; sometimes more than Mommy would like.  She tries to
keep it confined to my study; a task she finds harder to perform every year.
She has given in somewhat.  She allows us to maintain an aquarium which houses
a few obligatory fish, but its population consists primarily freshwater
mussels and snails.  Just last week we managed to sneak in a terrarium which
is occupied by three species of terrestrial snails and a few obligatory
plants.  So our kids are experiencing not just shells, but the whole animal as
well.  It wasn't designed to be this way, but our whole family enjoys
conchology.  I'm afraid that living with me they did not have much of a
choice.  (Sound familiar to anyone?)
      So since family involvement as a topic has just sort of "evolved", I'd
like to hear from others who are involved in the hobby as a family.  Share
your family experiences.
 
Doug Shelton
Mobile, Alabama