I will start by saying I lead a blessed life!
In 1979, my Mom graduated from college, and I graduated from the 8th grade. To celebrate both occasions, my family took a cruise from New York to the Bahamas. As many of you know, cruising is a great family experience, adults can eat, drink, and relax while children are offered opportunities to go on new and inspired adventures. One of the shipboard activities, called “letter in a bottle”, encouraged children to write short notes about themselves, adding their return address. Imagining the bottle floating in the sea was exciting!
Once the letters were written and stuffed into a corked bottle, we were taken to the stern, where we tossed the bottles into the Atlantic Ocean. Fun and done.
Fast forward to November 1981, and I received the following letter:
My “letter in a bottle” was found on the Azores island of Santa Maria on November 20, 1981, 30 months after that fateful toss! Now, if you are unfamiliar with the Azores, welcome to the club! It turns out the Azorean islands are an autonomous (keyword) region of Portugal, forming an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, and are situated about 850 miles west of Portugal. Santa Maria, Azores, is about 3,200 miles north-east of the Bahamas. Considering oceanic currents, my little letter in a bottle went a very long way!
As it turns out, Mr. Antonio found my bottle on November 20th. I received the letter in early December and immediately replied with details of my teenage American life. I never heard back from Mr. Antonio, but I dreamed of visiting the Azores and sincerely shaking his hand. In my mind, Mr. Antonio looked like a Greek fisherman, and I knew he led a life full of family and fun. I kept the letter with my childhood treasures, and when my folks moved to their current home, my Mom delivered a little wooden treasure box and declared it officially mine. It’s a beautiful box. It had my name in stickers on the top and sported a non-locking lock. I fondly re-read the letters from my past, and when I found the “letter in a bottle” envelope, I put it in my office for use in my newly conceived BLOG.
What better place to visit than an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic Ocean?
With this in mind, I drafted a note in May 2015 to the addressee of the original letter, introducing the BLOG and myself. I sent a second note to a Mr. Antonio via Facebook and mailed a letter to a man with the same name in Massachusetts, and then I forgot about it. And that’s all I’m saying. I’m leaving you to wonder, how does the story turn out? Is Mr. Antonio a Facebook stalker? I guess, you’ll just have to read next week’s post to find out!
Have a great week,