If you’ve ever walked the beach, you’ve probably noticed that area up near the dunes where the flotsam and jetsam brought in by the ocean is deposited and left by the highest tides; the ‘tide line’ it’s called. Around here the bulk of that line usually consists of the remnant canes of dead Spartina marsh grass mixed, unfortunately, with occasional bottles, cans, fishing and crabbing floats, and the like.
A similar line exists further up in the estuaries where the marshes are. On good spring tides with a stiff wind behind them, all but the highest portions of the marsh are underwater and anything floatable is brought up out of the grass and flung along a line where the water finally stops and retreats. This tide line in the marsh is off the beaten path and, unlike beaches, never gets cleaned up. There’s a lot of stuff out there. The result is something of a history lesson – you’ll find bottles for soft drinks that haven’t been made in years or see old glass bottles and new plastic ones for the same product, for instance. I walked up on a dead mule out there years ago. No clue where that thing floated in from, but he was history.
There aren’t many reasons to go slogging your way along the marsh tide line, but we manage to find one every so often and it is always interesting. Two of our finds were messages in bottles and these, I think, are special. Special mainly because of the sheer unlikelihood that anyone would locate them where they finally managed to land. They weren’t going any further and not many folks walk through that marsh. Even then, what catches your eye about that bottle when you’ve walked past a hundred seemingly just like it?
But I said these walks are something of a history lesson and these messages were snapshots of different times. The older bottled message was written in pencil on a fragment of stiff paper. It’s very faint, but as near as I can tell the address listed doesn’t exist anymore and the phone number belongs to someone else. The more recent message we found a couple of months ago and this one was written on computer and includes the sender’s email address. This one wished us a Happy Valentine’s Day 2004. If you, or someone you know, are thepurpleflamingo@hotmail.com, we love you too. Since it’s very legible, I’ll reseal it and set it adrift again with an added note.
I find these messages special, too, because someone once, for reasons of their own, decided to write a note, seal it up, and fling it, with some sort of hope, to the current. It makes you wonder who they are (or were), and what was going on in their lives when they sent that message out. In my mind they’re good people, but who knows?
I think to some degree that’s how Savannah got me on board with this blog. Maybe this is our little message in a bottle. Hope you enjoy.
Bloodhound
Oh, this is the older note…found about 35 years after it’s launch. I’m using the fellow’s name since he didn’t mind doing so. And who knows, maybe he’ll hear about it:
"Dear Finder,
Please write me at 1XXX Lee Street and tell me you found the bottle. Phone 264-XXXX. Date 10-26-71.
Thanks,
Pete Smith (peace sign)"
