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Monday, November 26, 2012

abandoned

I threw the bright colored dive stick and the boys quickly splashed after it.  Chaco soon emerged with...

five bucks.

What?  He examined it with a perplexed look, then dove under again.  This time he came up with a few dollar bills.  He repeated this process a couple of more times until he eventually held over twenty dollars.  The dive stick was long forgotten.

Chaco was about 7 years old at the time, and we were once again spending a hot summer day at the pool.  Given the amount of cash he'd found on his treasure dive, we decided to turn it in at the club house.  Just as he was bringing the dripping bills to the cashier, a man was there inquiring if anyone had found about 20 bucks.

The man was quite happy to see his money.  He realized too late that he'd left it in the pocket of his swim trunks and didn't really expect to see it again.  He let Chaco keep some of it, as "reward".

I come across a lot of lost items during dog walks, fun runs, bike rides...  I've got a rather handy fine quality knife that I just today used to skin a dead animal open a bag of kat litter.  Then there's the mini flashlight.  Those are just a couple of things I've kept.  There have been countless baby socks, shoes, binkies, gloves, hats, coins, golf balls, tennis balls, baseballs...

During my stints working in hotels, all kinds of interesting things were left behind.  The one most prominent in my memory was an actual wooden totem pole, longer than the bed.  It was left in the room, it's "feet" dangling off the foot of the bed.  The housekeepers refused to clean the room, certain that there was some sort of curse left on it.

The Friday before Thanksgiving break, a nice black jacket was lying next to the walking path as I headed home from the crosswalk.  I'm pretty sure it belongs to one of the high schoolers that walks to and from school that way.

*SIGH*

I didn't want to just leave it there.  It was in pretty good shape and there wouldn't be any school traffic for over a week.  It spent Thanksgiving break with us.

Last night, I put it back out on the path in a place where it could be seen, hopefully, by its owner walking to school.  It was still there this morning.  I left it.  It was still there this afternoon.  RATS!

I guess I'll leave it, and if it's still there tomorrow I'll ask Wolfgang to take it to the high school lost and found.




As for my new hat, I've had good reason to wear it on a few occassions to ward off the chill.  It's OH so warm and comfy!  No one has tried to claim it from me.   Plus, the kids, parents, and motorists in general all seem to like it too.

This one's a finders keepers!

What's something you regret losing?
The most interesting thing you've found?

6 comments:

Rock Chef said...

I used to have a box of dice that I had collected over many years - starting when I was about 12 and continuing through my years of playing Dungeons and Dragons and similar games. I lost them at some point on the way home from a game. I have replaced them with new dice, of course, but I still miss some of the old ones.

Best find? Probably the £150 two floor rabbit hutch that was just dumped outside someone's back gate (with a note saying "please take") at the time we needed it most.

Talking of finding things when you really need them, many years ago my wife and I were walking along a beach with our dogs. If was the middle of winter, we were the only people for miles around. We were broke. Then I saw something blowing along the beach and stamped on it. It was a £10 note!

Abby said...

Free bunny hutch, Yay! My husband and I were doing an old folk's walk one dark night when I kicked something that didn't feel like leaves. I looked closer and it was a 20 dollar bill. Glad I checked!

ShadowRun300 said...

You definitely hit the jackpot with that hat, and I hope the jacket finds a good home as well.
I remember losing a favorite bracelet that had the names of all my kids on it. I prayed to St. Anthony, the patron of lost things, and found it months later in my hubby's recliner. Not sure how it ever got there, but I was so thankful to have found it! I suppose that would make it my best find as well. (Other than hubby, of course.)

meleah rebeccah said...

That hat is pure awesomeness!

terri said...

For the life of me, I can't remember losing anything of real importance. Of course there were plenty of mittens, socks, tubes of lip balm, etc. I guess it's only fair then, that I haven't found anything really spectacular either!

agg79 said...

The hat. You definitely make it work. Typically I have found junk along the trails but my son and I did pick up a very expensive pair of Nikon binoculars at a basketball game which I turned over to the lost & found. Would have like to keep those for a while but it didn't seem right.