Passage II

Shell Seeking on Padre Island

Just off the southern coast of Texas, not far from the Mexican border, lies one of my favorite places, Padre Island. However, some of my best childhood memories are of days spent there with my father.

People go to this narrow strip of land on the Gulf of Mexico, there they sunbathe, fish, swim, explore the towns, or pass the time engaged in leisurely pursuits. We went there to look for shells. And we found them on "Little Shell Beach" and "Big Shell Beach."

I became very interested in shells over the years. That was how I learned the names of the beautiful objects in my collection; Scotch bonnets, Atlantic cockles, bay scallops, and sand dollars. I also learned the names of shells that weren't in my collection for which they might be if I kept going back on return trips to Padre Island.

I arrived early one morning. Late in the afternoon, a cluster of seaweed on the beach caught my attention. An examination of the tangled heap, I saw a lightning whelk, the state seashell of Texas: (25) Then I saw another. Overcome with excitement, I carefully extracted them from the seaweed before dashing down the beach to show my father. We put my treasure's on the sand to admire them. They were as long as my father's feet. Amazingly, they had survived the storm without any chips or cracks. Perhaps the dense seaweed had protected them. We wrapped the shells in a towel, put them in my father's backpack, and headed for town.

On the way, I watched the shorebirds as the sun set over the water. The black skimmers were flying low, their open beaks gliding through the water. A laughing gull hopped from post to post on a rickety pier. A pair of roseate spoonbills stood in the surf, waiting for dinner to swim by.

Providing a festive conclusion to a perfect day, a troupe of flamenco dancers was performing in the amphitheater at the edge of town. The swirling of taffeta skirts and the drumming of shoes on the polished floor seemed to celebrate our best day ever on Padre Island.