It all started here. As my final year as principal of Kirbyville Elementary was winding down, people began to show their appreciation of my 17 years of service with gifts. One of the most precious gifts I received was a collection of four professionally published books written by my kindergarten through third grade students about the topic of my retirement and how I should spend my time. “My kids” knew me well and sent me on trips to the ocean and to study butterflies. Some of my kids found new jobs for me and even sent me to McDonald’s. The book elicited both smiles and tears. But, these pages started me on a quest to find the “Land of the Purple Sand…”
After I had a chance to read the books to myself, I went “on tour” in the school to each grade level to read some of the books to the authors. Each grade level was so excited that their work was actually in a “real book” and they were “real authors”. Each group predictably wanted to see their own book first. I read with expression and stopped to comment on each page or ask a question of the author. When I was reading to second grade and reached these pages, I gushed, “What a wonderful imagination! You took my favorite color and my favorite place in the world and combined them! I would love to see a purple sand beach!”
The second graders immediately protested in a chorus, “It’s not imagination. It’s real!”
“There really is a purple sand beach!”
“We saw it on Mystery Science!”
After declaring that our free trial of Mystery Science must continue if it was teaching the kids valuable information like this, I listened as the students explained more. A spectacled young man launched into a scientific explanation of the sand. He described gemstones in the mountains being eroded and the tiny fragments being washed down the mountainside covering the sandy valley with purple sparkle.
I continued reading the book with the kids, but part of my brain was churning away beginning to dream of a beach with purple sand and wondering where it was and how to get there.
When I returned to my office, my fingers danced across the keyboard while the computer googled and I learned that there were several purple sand beaches in the world, but I settled on this one, Pfeiffer Beach. (adventure continues in Part 2)
Retired Girl in a Beautiful World 