A Mother’s Musing : Sometimes people are just born lucky
Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008
My son was born lucky. He's always losing things and sometimes his things find their way back.
In grade school he had a denim jacket that he loved. He loved it so much that you would think he would be able to keep track of it. He wasn't. He left that jacket all over town. Luckily I had put his name and phone number in it and were able to retrieve it from the pizza place and the school and once from the auditorium where we had watched a professional hockey game. When he left it on top of his dad's car, we had little hope of getting it back. But it reappeared. Someone saw it slip off and actually stopped to pick it up. It was the mother of one of his friends, so she knew where to return it when she saw the name. We were amazed.
He's working on the world record for the number of lost glasses. I've worn glasses my whole life and have only lost one pair in the water. He's up to five pairs. But one was miraculously returned. He dropped those off a friend's dock and I insisted we return to the scene and try to retrieve them. Of course it was a crazy plan. The water was just too deep. We dived and dived, but could barely reach the bottom and couldn't see when we reached it. Just as we were about to give up a friend recognized our boat and came by to say hello. He heard the story of the lost glasses and volunteered to look. He dived down one time and put his hand right on the lost glasses.
I've always wondered what happened to the other four pairs. I can imagine some of those really big catfish nosing around the bottom of Beaver Lake wearing wire rimmed glasses. One pair was lost off our dock when the lake was fairly high. When the water got low and the dock was let out to the end of its cables, I went searching for those glasses. They were gone.
Then there are the coolers. When my husband and I were first married, we had a green metal Coleman cooler that we used for years. Whenever we brought food with us - whether it was a week-long camping trip or an evening at the drive in theater - we used the same green cooler. Then one day we had it on the boat with us and someone made the mistake of sitting down on the lid of the green metal cooler after it had been out in the sun for a few hours. We immediately bought a plastic cooler for use when we were in the sun.
Since then our garage has been the home of an ever changing collection of plastic coolers. Every time we pack food for the boat we find a different cooler. Sometimes I see one that looks familiar. They'll disappear for a few weeks, even months, and then suddenly return. The vague explanation from our son is that it was in someone's car for the intervening months.
Other times I find coolers that are completely unfamiliar and I know one of my son's friends is answering his parents'questions. Strangely, we usually have a cooler to use, even if it's not one we actually bought. My son is all grown up and living in his own apartment, but he's still losing things. And he's still lucky. He was getting gas for the boat a couple of weeks ago when he left his wallet on the roof of his car and drove off. What are the chances that someone who saw it falling off his car would stop and retrieve it ? What are the chances that the person who stopped would look up a phone number, call the house and offer to return it ?
So the next time I go through Hobbs State Park, I'll have even more to be grateful for. I'll still appreciate the pretty scenery and the wildlife, but I'll also remember it was a Hobbs ranger who returned my lucky son's lost wallet. Thanks.
Reporter Lynn Atkins can be contacted by e-mail at lynna @ nwanews. com.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online