As a youngster growing up on the Gulf coast I naturally became a bit of a rockhound. Makes sense doesn’t it? What with no natural rock formations being available within a hundred miles of where I lived.

I think the rocks that first caught my eye, and are still my favorite, were the granite blocks hauled in to stop erosion around Galveston Island and along the shore of Galveston Bay on the mainland. I don’t know how many hundreds of pounds of the smaller blocks of granite I hauled home over the years, but I probably put a pretty good dent in the erosion control effort at Red Bluff on Galveston Bay.

The only other rock samples I had available for my budding interest were the gravels that were used on the country roads in Fort Bend and Austin Counties. Now mind you, these weren’t pea gravel that you see everywhere today. These roads were made of russet potato sized gravel. Most of these ancient river stones were dug up from deposits deep under the surface north of El Campo in Wharton County. There were lots of large quartz and flint rocks bigger than my fists in those days. All had the same look on the outside, slightly rough and brown in color. It was only when broken open the the true nature became visible. Needless to say I spent hours when visiting my relatives in those areas breaking rocks to see what they held inside.

It wasn’t until my teenage years that I actually began to visit real rock country. Then my grandparents moved to a ranch in south Texas about half way between Corpus Christi and San Antonio, and there were rocks everywhere. From then on, everywhere I have gone I have carried home rocks.

This tale is leading up to the fact that even though I would like to join in on International Rock-Flipping Day on September 2nd…I would have a very hard time finding a rock to flip…here and now…This is what Pablo at the Roundrock Journal had to say…

Roundrock Journal
It’s not often that you can be part of something big at the very start. But here’s a chance.

September 2 of this year will be the very first International Rock-Flipping Day. On or around that day, bloggers everywhere will flip over rocks and photograph, sketch, or otherwise describe what they find underneath. Actually, I’m not clear whether you’re supposed to flip the rocks on the 2nd or have already done so before then so you can make your post on the 2nd. Either way, the mastermind behind this brilliant cultural meme is Dave Bonta, so you know it will thrive and grow through the decades to come.

So all of you folks with access to rocks in the environment…Prepare to flip your way into history. I’ll have to take a rain check this year.

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The breaking News of the Morning seems to be the imminent resignation of Alberto Gonzales. AP is reporting the announcement will come this morning from Crawford. The countdown has begun…