The Bag Of Lost Things
A casual collection of curiosities
At the beach where I go walking, there is a mysterious collection of misplaced items that slowly grows, and shrinks, and grows again. These curious bits and pieces — big and small — are contained within a large net bag that’s hung over a fence post, just by the path entrance to the beach.
Each time I go, I have a look to see which new members of the treasure trove have arrived since last time…
A pair of children’s sandals — they’re those cute ones with a thick elastic strap at the back so tiny feet don’t fall out. Being so small, perhaps they were left behind accidentally in the pack up. Maybe they were partially buried by the shifting sands, or maybe their owners were in too much of a rush to remember their seemingly insignificant existence.
I look around briefly to see if there are any small children nearby…
A piece of rope — not a whole rope though (you can see that one end’s been cut off), and yet it’s still a rope. How can we tell where one end starts and the other stops? How long is a piece of string, anyway? I wonder what this rope was used for? Was it off a cray pot, or did it fall off a boat? Maybe someone was trying to tie something together on the beach.
A piece of tarp — peculiar, and triangular in shape. It’s blue, but the colour doesn’t really matter. What does matter it how it was dismembered from its original form, and how it managed to get here. It looks as though it was buried in the sand at some point; part of it seems a bit wet and the rest is faded from the sun. Perhaps it was part of a shade sail at some point.
I kind of wish the tarp was whole and shading me as I keep looking…
A left thong (flip flop) — not surprising really, because it’s always the right one that breaks! It’s annoying when you have a blowout half way up the beach. But where’s the broken one? Strange that the working one ended up in here. I wonder where its partner is, and if the person who wore them is missing them at all. The sand can burn your feet if you’re not careful.
A water bottle — not one of those disposable plastic ones, but a reusable one. It probably cost someone a bit of money because it looks like it’s good quality and it’s not that old. I wonder where it was put to be so far from the bag and not packed up. Maybe they were playing beach cricket and it was thrown to the side mid-game. It’s even still half full of warm water.
I wish I’d brought my own water bottle to have cool, fresh drink…
A piece of boogie board — about the top third to be precise, arm rope still attached. This is a reasonably expected sight, because boogie boards do break pretty easily and the lost piece can be hard to find once you resurface from being dumped. I guess someone put it in here to see if it could be rejoined? I don’t like their chances.
An old hat — actually, it’s a cap. It’s got a yellow trim around the brim; not that you can really tell, though, because the colours are so faded that they’re almost blending together at this point in time. I think that someone would have lost it while they were fishing. Maybe it was swept off an old man’s head and washed away by the ocean.
It’s interesting to see what’s left behind at the beach, and to see what’s been taken from the bag and also added the next time I come. I can’t help but wonder if most of the items were just carelessly forgotten, or if someone is still searching for them by the water’s edge.
I’m in need of a cool drink under a shady tree. Time to head to the park…
