Whew folks! The last time I saw this column was August 14th but today I found it again. Thanks for reading my lost and found post.
Oh the joys. Oh the agonies. Oh the ups and downs.
Wouldn’t it be great if day-to-day was as easy as playing hide and seek?
I remember playing that child’s game. Someone,
usually the youngest, usually me, would have to be IT. You’d lean against the
rough bark of the hide and seek tree, the designated “home”, and count to 100
(by ones, if you didn’t cheat). Then everyone laughed and took off to hide or
maybe tag “home” while IT was off on the search. We’d play until dark or until
parents called us in. I think that this simple game was a great preparatory for
life. For aren’t we always dealing with some version of lost and found?
A great place to find things and then decide to
keep them or… maybe not… is the shore of Lake Superior. The other day we
paddled to one of our favourite beaches. The water was calm and we took our
time looking at the landscape, the waterscape, always on the watch for some
hidden “treasure” - be it a beautiful boulder under the water or perhaps a
mother duck skimming along to find fish with her small charges in tow. We
pulled up to the pebbly beach and took in the solitude and the beauty of a Superior
morning. After a sit with a cup of tea on a huge white pine log, we wandered around.
Such fun picking up this and that. A large bright orange fishing buoy. An odd
piece of plywood with a perfect square cut out of it. A dotted conglomerate
rock. Small blue and yellow plastic beach shovels and a bright yellow smiley
turtle for sand castling. The sojourn started me thinking about the dozens and
dozens of “things” that folks find at this time of year.
Then, when I heard about an elaborate plan to
conduct a special underwater search in Superior’s sister, Lake Ontario, I
realized that this lost and found game has real effects on people in real time.
Whether the consequences last a lifetime or a single morning, the intensity,
the adrenalin charge of recovering a lost item or finding a new one is quite
profound.
The Lake Ontario search is of a particular
social/historical significance. In the 1950s, Canada’s CF 105 delta winged
supersonic Avro Arrows were eons ahead of their time. But, for secret reasons,
the then Prime Minister John Diefenbaker ordered the destruction of all 5
prototypes and their blueprint plans. However, humanity being the curious race
that it is, could not let the mystery of the amazing plane stay down in the
drink, especially when model-sized Avro Arrows are sitting on the bottom of
Lake Ontario. “Raise The Arrow” is the attempt to find one or more of these
small prototypes using the “Thunder Fish”, a sonar equipped, remote underwater
vehicle that will map the bottom of Lake Ontario. Imagine the Facebook hoopla if
Thunder Fish finds one of the models!
But thrills also belong to smaller finds. Check
out this cool story.
In July of this year some folks were spending the
night at the Twilight Resort. While landing a rental canoe after a quick
paddle, one of them lost his ring in the lake. Since the traveller had to leave
right away, he offered “a G note” to anyone who could find his precious ring.
Well that spurred on one particular searcher! Cut out the bottom of a plastic
pail. Inset Plexiglas. Take said impromptu underwater viewer and earn 1000
bucks! Voila. The half pound, solid gold, 1” square, diamond and ruby encrusted
and inscribed ring glistened amongst the underwater pebbles and a guy became
$1000 richer.
But not all 2017 Montreal River lost and found
stories are so marvellous. Last month a seasonal resident found what most of us
dread to encounter while walking in the bush - the remains of a human body.
Although OPP have not released any identification or cause of death, the person
who died on that cliff at the far end of a beautiful beach can now rest in
peace. And I would think that the OPP beach fire that helped warm officers who
had to maintain 24 hour protection of the scene, also helped send that poor
person’s soul on to the otherworld.
Sharing stories about lost and found experiences
has got to be a vital part of our human condition, a crucial link to a common
existence. Whether it be a 20 dollar bill waving on the sand rippled bottom of
Lake Superior by Bathtub Island, a family ring that slipped off the finger of
an unwary swimmer, a rusted old rifle jammed under a boulder near the mouth of
the Montreal River or even a child’s pink running shoe buried in the Agawa sand
and dug up a year later by someone else, the retrieval of a lost item, pet or
person has got to be one of the greatest joys of all.
So good luck to Thunder Fish and all the other
searchers. We all can use a hand up once in a while.
