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Six years has elapsed since my fascination with fossils began. Without the Fossil Forum, I would not be where I am today with regards to both my fossil finds and the knowledge gained through the forum about my discoveries. Let me thank the MANY, MANY individuals that have helped with my adventures. I must first of all thank (from me) and blame (from my wife) @Bev for getting me initially involved in fossils . From our early hunts, a passion for the hobby emerged. But you all deserve a BIG pat on the back for helping not only me but so many others trying to gain knowledge in such a wonderful segment of science. More specifically, I have had the opportunity to taste the wonders of Floridian fossils over the last few years. @digit,@dalmayshun, @Plantguy, @MikeR, @Sacha @Shellseeker, @joshuajbelanger and more have all assisted me in one form or the other, making my vacations to the Sunshine State successful. Special thanks goes out to @jcbshark. He is the Florida version of Bev to me, taking this fledgling under his wing and making sure that I experienced an exceptional hunt each and every time that I visit him. Hopefully, he embraces our new friendship as much as I do. By the way, Jeff, are the fish biting????? It won't be long. During my first trip to Florida, Jeff volunteered to guide me to some fossils and took me to the infamous "Cookie Cutter Creek", known for its very tiny Isistius shark teeth. As a newbie to the art of shark tooth hunting, like everyone during their first hunt, I wanted BIG teeth, and I was successful at pulling a 2"meg out of the gravel!!!! As I sifted for more, Jeff was collecting fine matrix. It just looked like sand to me as I peered into his full 5 gallon bucket that took a day to gather, not appreciating what he had. Fast forward to today, I have matured a bit (don't tell anyone) and now totally appreciate the fact that bigger is not always better. Presently, I kick myself in the tush for not having done a little sifting for Cookie Cutter shark teeth, especially since the stream has currently been "cleaned up" and all the fallen trees removed, leaving the creek just a straight flat rock bottomed drainage ditch. My hopes of sifting for some cookie cutter teeth sadly disappeared with the creek's improvements. Then came the 2019 Rolling Auction to benefit the Forum, where @Darktooth kindly offered up "cookie cutter matrix". My wife knew my emotional attachment to this creek and my desire to find access to some matrix. So, since my birthday was the following week, she gave me the OK to bid away. I contacted @digit ,who collected the offered matrix, to see the likelihood of Isisteus teeth being present. With Ken's comments to me, I began bidding, that is until it jumped from my bid of $65 to $100 with many days left until the auction ended. Who was this @MSirmon character. How dare he blow my bid out of the water! Fearful that the bidding would go beyond what even I was comfortable spending, I elected to hold off further bids until hours before the auction ended. This was a mistake as you will soon see. And MSirmon won the auction with no additional bids. After reading the auction results and taking a few deep breaths, I posted this congratulatory note. Posted July 13 Congratulations @MSirmon. Great donation to the forum and great batch of fossils offered up by Darktooth who accomplished his goal of a $100 bid. Enjoy!!!!!!! My wife knew I wanted the cookie cutter mix terribly. My first fossil hunting trip to Florida was on this creek and it is a special place to me, full of wonderful memories that I will cherish. To make a long story short, as a "birthday gift" next week, she said BID AWAY!!! My intent was to be that last hour bidder making sure the prize came home! BUT unfortunately, I fished in the heat all day yesterday, came home, ate a great meal, and proceeded to fall asleep at 8:00. Slept until 2:30, at which time I woke up in a sweat, realizing what I had done. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! So watch out you future bidders, I have a green light if I see anything that tickles my fancy. To return to the point of this post, that being how wonderful forum members are, I will continue my story. A package postmarked from New York arrived a few days ago and was HEAVY. I questioned my wife if she had purchased any fossils for me and she said no. Still not believing her, I said if this was from her, then she would also owe me 100 backrubs. She agreed to this, convincing me that the origin of the package was unknown. I was perplexed. To solve the mystery, I went ahead and opened the package. Inside was a huge bag of "sand" and a note from Darktooth saying "Happy Birthday! This package is being sent on behalf of MSirmon (Mike) as a birthday gift. These are the items he won from my recent offerings (yes, there was more than the cookie cutter matrix in the box)............ I was stunned to say the least. What generosity from a person that I do not even know!!!! I now want to say to a special person THANK YOU MIKE, from the bottom of my heart And a smaller, yet also heart felt thank you to everyone else. Mike

Hello All you wonderful people How do I love thee,let thee count the ways....Need some feedback from people I dont know who can pretend to care...at least on this forum.Hi Im new as of today-I think? Here is where I am posting a long buried maybe even in denial question whether it is noble to let sleeping future fossils die? I have a DESIRE, a PASSION.....for...finding fossils... It started long ago in a state far far away...the state of Idaho and...by accident started because of the prejudicial viewpoint of one Anthropology Proffs idea of women in the world of...(probably anything) but especially Anthropology...I shall not name names those who are guilty know their blame As Ralphies teacher pointed out in A Christmas Story. This"happening" lead me to ,"Geology" for which is not only very therapeutic,but interesting,structured,and fun!...especially......Paleontology. Also a sad ending...I learned the lesson of being quiet,do everything yourself,watch your fossils back along with your own, DONT TRUST ANYONE. Being an older student did not help and I admit I should have lied about my age....I had to decipher my final-Rock core Sample 3 tables long...all on my own without help while everyone else had a partner. During my end of semester pak Trip into the Idaho Mountains...I fell maddly and completely in Love with picking up rocks,brushing away debris chiseling climbing in the hot sun dodging scorpions (but so tiny they are almost cute) and using my intuition to find great finds (although not expert great) well not that I know of...because,I found what looked very rare and my proff could not take his eyes off them....some sort of family of small crawling things not common for the time period...and it was on a big piece of rock people....I asked someone to bring it down for me. I left it in the School Geology van that nite,the next day as we were being left out at our home,my world crashed...someone,I know not whom because they were swift chiseled my specimens completely off my Rock! I still had my singleton whole Rugose Coral and my coral stem they were compact but the other-GONEjust a big rock with holes in it. I was not treated fairly there either no one to go to...I dropped out of College (due to finance) I have put all I learned aside,buried it That Sedimentology&Stratigraphy course-C+ Paleontology 1- C+ Degree= 0 they wouldn't even let me hold and use the Jacob stick!!!!! I think about fossils everyday especially when I look at my little babies the corals which I still have and not preserved all in same condition Do I let it now completely die away-that was in 2006 and now,I am 50 years old. Not having a car never helps either Should I need friends or penpals or epals....who LOVE the same things and are not mean spirited or Should I just let it die now and pass away with my age.That's my reason for being on here,to find out now. To be or not to be that is the Question.