Dropped in here randomly. Each person has their own story.
For my own story, as many kids are, I was interested in dinosaurs and other big critters and volcanoes, though none of these were present in the immediate area in which I grew up, on the Georgia Piedmont, Northeast of Atlanta.
Fortunately, my parents both enjoyed being outdoors, whether working in the family garden, tromping through the woods, panning for gold, taking nature hikes, pointing out interesting plants, visiting museums, ...
Though they were not perfect, they were ahead of their time in some ways, compared to other folks. We were not allowed to through any trash out of the car windows nor into our creek. When Japanese Beetles became a scourge in the early 1970s, they resisted using insecticides in the garden out of concern for the honey bees, so when Japanese Beetle traps became available, those were deployed instead.
My Dad had taken a Geology class while at Georgia Tech in the middle 1930s, so he had a passing interest in it. (About 8 years after my Dad's passing, my Mom spent her 70th birthday - with a pacemaker - leading a bunch of Cub Scouts on a Nature Hike.)
A couple of important turnings points helped me keep focused upon Geology. In the 3rd grade, our teacher told us that her husband's road crew had found some Mastodon teeth at a construction site in Florida and he had brought a couple of them home. As she only lived a block from the school, we were able to secure permission for small groups to walk to her home to see the teeth in their garage (I think this was about 1961 or 1962).
I reasoned (to myself) that if extinct elephants were "running around in Florida, they must have been in Georgia, too".
The second turning point was at the end of my Junior year when selecting my Senior year classes. When presented with the choices of Physics and Geology, I knew Geology had to be easier than Physics and I had my prior interests to fall back upon. From the moment I entered college in late 1972, I was always a Geology major, never anything else.
[I am planning on posting more videos in March about Geology as a career.]
Though they were not perfect, they were ahead of their time in some ways, compared to other folks. We were not allowed to through any trash out of the car windows nor into our creek. When Japanese Beetles became a scourge in the early 1970s, they resisted using insecticides in the garden out of concern for the honey bees, so when Japanese Beetle traps became available, those were deployed instead.
My Dad had taken a Geology class while at Georgia Tech in the middle 1930s, so he had a passing interest in it. (About 8 years after my Dad's passing, my Mom spent her 70th birthday - with a pacemaker - leading a bunch of Cub Scouts on a Nature Hike.)
A couple of important turnings points helped me keep focused upon Geology. In the 3rd grade, our teacher told us that her husband's road crew had found some Mastodon teeth at a construction site in Florida and he had brought a couple of them home. As she only lived a block from the school, we were able to secure permission for small groups to walk to her home to see the teeth in their garage (I think this was about 1961 or 1962).
I reasoned (to myself) that if extinct elephants were "running around in Florida, they must have been in Georgia, too".
The second turning point was at the end of my Junior year when selecting my Senior year classes. When presented with the choices of Physics and Geology, I knew Geology had to be easier than Physics and I had my prior interests to fall back upon. From the moment I entered college in late 1972, I was always a Geology major, never anything else.
[I am planning on posting more videos in March about Geology as a career.]
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