Wampum & The Real World

Sadly, I have just returned from vacation on Prudence Island, RI.  My family is blessed to have a summer cottage on Prudence and it is here that I am able to regenerate to face the world that we live in.  The stress of the real world seeps out of me on the ferry ride from Bristol and almost instantly when I step on the Island, life priorities become crystal clear.  Prudence is a welcome step back in time when the most important treasure in a person's life was probably something in human form.  There is no commercialism, no concern as to what you or anyone else is wearing, no false pride as to what type of house you live in and though there are all different grades of automobile, at the end of the day, they are all the same-covered with black dust from the nearly unpaved roads.  Life is simple and easy on Prudence and the Islanders are friendly and thankful to be there.  The biggest decision you may have in a day could easily be whether to curl up with a good book or go swimming.  Re-entry into the real world has been extremely difficult for me.

I am a government drone and my penance in this capacity is to supervise child support enforcement.  Enough said.  Unfortunately, I allowed myself no time to transition from my vacation to reality.  I arrived home in the evening after driving 16 hours and found myself sitting behind a desk early the next morning.  If meteors had feelings, I am quite sure they could easily empathize with what I felt that morning.  One moment you are happily floating around in space and the next-bam!-you are crashing into earth not knowing what hit you.  As I was sitting there with beach hair that wouldn't submit to office hair even with power tools, the expression "where the hell am I and why am I sitting in this hand basket?" readily came to mind.  I didn't think it would be appropriate to just stare ahead, laughing hysterically, so I allowed my mind to drift to treasured memories of Prudence.

The quahog is a hard-shelled clam native to Rhode Island.  These shells are prevalent along the shores of Prudence Island.

Hundreds of years ago, Native Americans made "money" from the purple section of the quahog shell.  Beads were formed and used as currency.  The value of the beads was determined by the various hues of purple in the quahog shells-the darker the purple, the more the beads were worth.  I have collected pieces of wampum for years along the shores of Prudence Island.  After vacationing on Prudence, I bring my wampum to North Carolina and place it in a special garden spot.  It is beautiful and always reminds me of how blessed I am to have time on Prudence Island.  If wampum was still a form of currency, I believe this piece would be high dollar because of the intensity of the purple-it is just about black.

Look at how much darker it is compared to other wampum I collected.

I was very surprised when I did a search for wampum on Etsy there were 183 hits.  This necklace was one of my favorite wampum finds.

You can find it at this fabulous Etsy shop Beach Inspired Jewelry


I have no idea how much my wampum collection would be worth if it was actually still used as money.

  

All I know is when I see it in my garden after a stressful day at work-it is absolutely priceless..........

www.etsy.com/shop/boomerbabiesupcycles

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