We grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida(6th generation Floridians,our kids are 7th generation, and now their kids who stay in Florida are 8th generation) On sandbars there might be dozens and they were easy to find, just feel around the sand with your toes.
There was no “conservation” info back then, I don’t think we even realized they were alive, we thought of them as shells, so we would take a few home. Once you took them home they would turn brown, I think a mild bleach wash kept them white, the purpose of bringing them home was for display in your room, or make a necklace, but they were pretty fragile for that. We knew there were 5 doves, but we didn’t want a broken sand dollar, so we never broke them.)
We always spent a couple weeks in the summer on a “staycation” at the beach. My dad still drove in to work everyday, and we’d stay at a rented cottage at the beach. It was the only vacation we could afford,because my dad could still work, but come back to the cottage once he was off, and do some surf fishing.
It was the only vacation we took for all of my growing up days. This was back in the 50’s and 60s and no big hotels at the beach, only a few. Mostly there were little cottages or duplexes. You put a pan with water at the front door so you could dunk your feet on the way in and keep from sweeping up sand as often.
Morning walks on the beach, we’d find all sorts of things, going inside everyday from 11-2 so we wouldn’t get “too” burned, surf fishing, collecting coquinas to make coquina soup, using a seine net and being amazed what we’d find, watching mullet fisherman pull in their huge net right up to the beach, going to bed with the small of Noxema on your sunburned shoulders and face, the sting of sunburn on your back, and feeling the gritting sand when you put your body into the sheets (no matter how hard you had tried to get it shaken out earlier in the day.)
Thanks for the sand dollar post, it was a walk down memory lane for me.
Your post was a walk down memory lane for me. You are probably the same age as my older siblings. I’m a child of the very very early 60s, but because my siblings are older, I hear their remembrances from the 50s. Much simpler times. I’m pretty nostalgic and sentimental, so I like to remember the pleasant things we got to do back then. It wasn’t always good times, but there were enough of them to get you through the tougher ones.