• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Bex Hall

  • Blog
  • The Memoir
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Contact me
Bex Hall > Memoir in Objects > The fern fossil I found

The fern fossil I found

February 21, 2022

The fern fossil I found.

This is the 6th story in the Objects as Waypoints Writing Project series.

In the woods on the ridgeline

St. Albans, WV

38° 22’ 58”N, 81° 51’ 45”W

There were about four acres of woods that separated the back of our house from a neighboring subdivision. In the center of these woods is a ridgeline, a high point where you can see for miles. The rocks and fallen trees made an excellent playground for an eight-year-old in 1972.

I don’t remember the details about how I found the fossil, but I remember tearing through the woods downhill at breakneck speed to show Grandmother.

The Funk & Wagnall’s encyclopedia at home wasn’t enough to answer my questions. I begged to be driven to the library. Books and librarians became my best friends and from this research, my life’s path became clear: I would become a paleontologist. Or a geologist. Could I be both?

So maybe not so clear.

And did I become either? Well, no. 

What I became, though, was an intensely curious person.

The moment I found the fern fossil was the moment I had an internal shift. It’s the first conscious memory I have that a world, other than my own, existed.

Close-up of a fern fossil.

Filed Under: Memoir in Objects Tagged With: the 100 day project 2022, the objects

Primary Sidebar

About Bex

 

Bex Hall

Her writing has appeared in various online and print publications, most recently in Kerning, a literary magazine, and in the Stories of Hope Collection in Transplant Living. Her artwork has appeared and sold through the Grayson Gallery. She blogs here about creative life and creates in Studio BE overlooking the Ohio River. Her work in progress is a memoir about the secret life of objects.

Notes

  • The 100 Day Project

    50 short stories in 100 days.

Subscribe to my newsletter

Secondary Sidebar

Notes

  • Creative practice goals:

    Show up every day behind the pen, the brush, or the lens and share my work.

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Gratitude, grief, and getting through
  • I’d like to ask a favor
  • No selvedge on my fabric heart
  • Answers lead to more questions
  • You can’t always get what you want

Inspiration & Craft

Quotes on Creativity

Recommended Books

Art & Writing Supplies

Galleries

Photo Gallery

Connect on Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Medium
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2023 · Bex Hall

  • Blog
  • The Memoir
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Contact me