Is this morbid of me? My mother is visitng Normandy Beach and I asked for some sand from it.

[shadowknows69]

I just kind of asked on impulse and now I'm kind of even questioning my own motivations. I told her to get mucho pictures of Stonehenge too when they go to the UK.

[Hepburn]

1. You seem normal to me...

...hope it is a great trip! :hi:

[shadowknows69]

5. I seem normal to you? I like you, but you must not know me very well lol.

[S_E_Fudd]

2. Not at all...

Whenever I go someplace historic I get a handful of dirt...keep it in little jars that I have labeled...

[CTyankee]

22. A friend of mine takes pictures of clotheslines in countries she visits.

She says she can tell all kinds of things about the people from what they hang on their clotheslines.

Me, I like to buy pens in famous museums or the town shops. I also save my ticket stubs from the museums. I have some nice pens from the Borghese in Rome, the Prado in Madrid, the Guggenheim in Bilbao and one from Ravenna.

[Howardx]

3. heck no

i would do the same

[lunatica]

4. It depends on why you want it and what you plan to do with it

n/t

[shadowknows69]

6. That's what I wondered after I asked. I'm going to reply to myself again with an answer

[Buzz Clik]

7. It's not like they'll run out of sand. My dad always wished he'd had some.

[shadowknows69]

8. My initial impulse I think was driven by a spiritual belief I hold

About places of power and how the land can absorb energies from events, people, sacred rites etc.

And so my intial motivation was to have a relic if you will of a place that saw unimaginable psychic turmoil with the deaths of so many (again, in my beliefs anyway).

But then I got to thinking how creepy that was as essentially it is a magickal relic of death. Although I guess you can call it one of honor as well. Even though I onced considered myself a "magician", as it were, I would never have insidious plans for such a relic, but it did get me to thinking about those jars of Saint's teeth and fingernails and shit the Catholic Church keeps. Christians have their "Magic Weapons" too right?

Anyhoo, just a psychotic brain fart. Thanks for your time.
-S

[Bandit]

9. I own a little chunk of the Berlin Wall so no I don't think it perverse.

:shrug:

[GoldenOldie]

10. Go with your spiritual belief

[MgtPA]

26. Now THAT'S cool.

[enlightenment]

11. Not morbid,

But if she brought you back some sand from the playground down the street, would you know the difference?

I do understand the impulse to 'feel' history - every time I have the opportunity to touch the past (most recently at Chepstow Castle, Wales) I take it - running my hands along the walls and doors. But it's the being there, standing in that place and knowing that so many other hands had passed over those same walls before me.

[shadowknows69]

13. I may try that as an experiment. Get some sand from a local beach.

And do a blind "vibe" test.

[enlightenment]

15. *chuckle*

I suspect you'd discover that neither sample gave anything off - just because you 'knew' that one of them was from the local beach.

We are perverse critters.

On a complete side note - I did take a lot of pictures of Chepstow and have an album in Picasa, if you'd like to see them.

[shadowknows69]

16. Yes, I'd love to actually pm me the link if you want.

[Ilsa]

12. It's normal, and it doesn't have to be weird or perverse in any way.

And I think I agree about the likely exposure of a grain of sand or two out the ten thousand to the psychic energy of the past. I can't explain it, but maybe when you haold it in your hands, you'll sense something.

[tuckessee]

14. I asume you mean Omaha Beach on the Normandie shore.

Or is it Utah, Sword or Juno?

Either way, nothing bizarre about it.

A friend of mine who collects WW2 USMC items has a set he's put together of sand from nearly all the Marine landing beaches from the Pacific. He breaks them down into actual landing areas, like from Tarawa he has sand from Red Beach, Blue Beach, etc.

[shadowknows69]

17. I don't know exactly which. She's on a tour of the "Normandy Landing"

I should have been more specific.

[tuckessee]

19. Make sure she remembers which beach it was.

Utah was a cakewalk. Omaha a slaughterground. Certainly the sand from those beaches will have different vibes.

It is a fascinating subject. On a militaria collector's site I frequent there was recently a big discussion about psychics and militaria and whether they could pick up vibes, etc from particular items.

[Kaleva]

18. No

Had a vivid dream sometime ago where I was in the first wave hitting the beach at Normandy. I had a glass jar with me and I stooped down to fill it with beach sand. I was then cut in half by a German machine gun. My dream would be morbid but your desire isn't.

[tuckessee]

20. That reminds me of a story from Manchester's "Goodbye Darkness".

Manchester describes a rear echelon man who was gut shot by a Japanese machine gunner because the GI had wandered out into no man's land in search of souvenirs. He died for a hinomaru flag.

In another book I remember a story about a guy who charged out of his foxhole to grab a mortally wounded Japanese officer while the officer was still on his knees so the GI could cut off his rank insignia.

They always said "Japanese fight for Emperor, Germans fight for the Fatherland, British fight for the Crown but Americans, they fight for souvenirs."

[Patsy Stone]

21. I have some sand I took from Normandy

and some small rocks I found there too. So if you're weird, I'm weird.

[WolverineDG]

23. I prefer coffee mugs

:shrug:

:hi:

dg

[Patsy Stone]

24. I have those too

but they're from concerts.

I have a whole jar of rocks from different places. :hi:

[rockymountaindem]

25. Nope. I got sand from all the beaches when I visited when I was nine

I would love to go back.

[Zoigal]

27. Husband collects sand from all over the world.

Nothing morbid about him. Kids just visited Stonehenge, and they were a bit disappointed.
Too young, i think, to appreciate it fully. Sounds like a neat tour your mom is taking....z

[obliviously]

28. Every time I go to a new place

I try to find a locally produced hot sauce. I have found some really good ones that way!