I still have a fossilized sharktooth
When I was 14, our science teacher planned a trip for us to go to a cave about an hour away to search for fossils. We were told the cave would be damp and cool, so dress in long pants and long sleeves, closed shoes, the works.

We get there, and the "cave" hasn't been a cave for about 50 years, in which time the area was turned into a quarry and blasted to hell, making a large open area, with no shade, surrounded by limestone walls. This is April-ish, in Florida. We're wearing pants and long shirts, and it's well over 100 degrees F in the quarry. However, there are indeed fossils all over the place, which we try to dig up and make the best of the situation, ignoring the heat, our faces getting sunburned, etc.

The teacher and several students find this huge rock with lots of fossils imbedded in it, and get the bright idea to bring it on the bus and take it back to school with us. So the teacher and three students start carrying it back. Someone drops their end. The rock was very sharp. The teacher had several fingers cut up. One of the students fared worse; one of his fingers was peeled open like a banana. We saw bone. Blood everywhere. Cue lots of 14 year old screaming, and injured boy saying things children should not be saying in front of teachers. They pile us all into the bus, and we all drive to the emergency room, dropping off the injured. Her husband and his parents had to drive an hour to get out there. The rest of us are taken back to the school, where we attempt to call our parents to come pick us up. Other chaperones had to wait several hours until everyone had been picked up.

Fucking disaster, it was. The kid's hand was fucked up ever since.
(puttysan, Sat 9 Dec 2006, 9:56, Reply)