Beach Combing Beach Thrifter

My Mom and I love to collect seashells. It has always been a bonding activity for us, and at times even a competition. Finding the biggest, most unblemished shell is what we both worked toward. There are special finds too, such as complete sand dollars, perfectly worn sea glass, or the ultimate; a shark's tooth.

When I was a teenager we vacationed one summer in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. There were beautiful shells there and they were very abundant. Auger shells were particularly numerous. We’d heard that people regularly found shark's teeth there too!

 

 

Some of my "beach bling" a term I love - coined over at iloveshelling.com

So it became the ultimate goal. I mean finding an actual sharks tooth, versus buying one from a tacky beach shop would be the ultimate bragging right. We spent hours every day looks for shells, and hoping to find a shark's tooth.

After a few days, my Mom found one! She was SO excited, and I was so excited for her, if not a little jealous. She literally screamed when she found it. And my siblings and I ran over to marvel at it! It was so COOL. For me, no shark's tooth in any store, or museum will EVER compare to the tooth she found that day.

 

I don't have a picture of the tooth, but my teenage self

commemorated it with this sketch book journal entry

I still haven't found a shark's tooth on my own. But when I walk into a thrift store, or pull up to a garage sale, I get that same feeling I do when looking for shells; what if today I find the big one, that sharks tooth? And that is what keeps us looking, and yard sale-ing and thrifting, and beach combing. The thrill of the hunt, and the victory in the find!

What is your elusive "shark's tooth"? Is there something you look for in thrift stores that you know you will keep for yourself when you find it?