Besides seeing the Cogon grass getting sprayed, (previous post) I have always wondered about the series of hills going toward Lucedale. From the time you cross the Leaf River on Highway 98 until you cross the Chickasaway River, a distance of about 12-15 miles, there is this series of hills. Before you cross the Leaf, the land is flat. After you cross the Chickasaway, the land is flat--but between there are these rolling hills.

So I call Geology Dept. At University of Southern Mississippi and asked to speak to a geologist. The geologist says there was a professor there up until two years ago who had a keen interest in the topography of Mississippi and had maps and written papers on it etc. but he's gone now (too bad for me.) But she told me what their theory is (to me a theory is an educated guess) that ancient rivers and floods had caused these hills to be formed, and also gave me the name of the geologist for the state of Mississippi.

So I call him and he says these hills are underlaid with sand and clay and less impervious to erosion, also he had a strange theory that because the Earth rotates west to east that gravitational pull or something had caused the peculiar instances of land flat on one side of the rivers, and hilly on the other side. I told him I didn't understand it and frankly it didn't satisfy my curiosity. Ii realize that geology is based in scientific fact, also on theory and speculation, and sometimes your guess is as good as mine. Capishe?

Then we went on to talk of some odd rocks found in the gravel in my driveway. I've picked up the odd rock here and there and want to know what they are and where they came from. Gravel beds in the south come from ancient river deposits from the north. Here we only have sedimentary rocks. The gravel here is from all kinds of rocks crushed and washed down to us by natural forces. He said I could mail him some of the rocks and he would identify them for me. YEA!

I knew pretty quickly, back when I first started out in nursing that what I really wanted to be was an anthropologist, first, followed by a geologist. So the counselor at the university says to me "You know a lot of people with a degree in anthropology can't find a job and are flipping burgers for a living." So I say okay, I want to be a geologist. She says "You have to take a year of calculus." My heart sank to my toes because I was born without a calculus gene and no matter how hard I tried I'd never master that. I had two kids to support, so I continued my nursing career.

But yesterday, talking about something that really interested me, I had painful clarity of what I should have done--pursued that degree in geology--I would have made it somehow. Now it's too late, the water is under the bridge, the hour has passed, what's done can't be undone. I would have had a different life. Se la vie.

susil