How do you spend a sand dollar? Yesterday we went to Pete’s Camp at low tide and walked nearly to water’s edge collecting sand dollars. One of the incredible attractions of San Felipe is the extreme tides that cause the shore to expand thousands of feet each day, exposing anew miles of tide pools filled with shells and yes, even sand dollars. One afternoon stroll could easily fill a coffer the size of shoe box.
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The locals collect and paint them. You’ll see them on everything from picture frames to tissue boxes. We passed a palm tree sporting a sand dollar ‘skirt.’ In mass they seem to become common and trivial. Yet, each one taken separately is a work of art and wonder of creation.
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Cut off from the net, not even a hard bound encyclopedia in the house, I’m left to ponder their origin and purpose. I don’t even know if they are or were living creatures or the cast iff homes of such, like sea shells. Each one bares a delicate floral bloom or star light emblem. Their not quite perfect circular design is broken on three sides with symmetrical slits which on closer observation are found to be centered in ‘petal’ of yet another floral pattern on the reverse side.
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One older and larger remnant appears to have outgrown these slits leaving only a scalloped edge as evidence of them and more questions as to whether they are the ruins internal growth or intrusions from outside. Nearly twelve later, away from the shore, their surface still feels moist. Are they still growing? Did I blindly destroy a living creature’s existence in my eagerness to catch their beauty and bring it home for me?
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Note: Found that the “sand dollars” we found are in fact the remains of living creature that washes up on shore after it’s death…. see Wiki