In the mail recently I received a newspaper clipping from a friend in the Bay Area about a lost wedding ring that was found in a sewer line. When the sewer company sent a rolling camera through the sewer lines during work done on the lines, a wheel broke on the apparatus. When they went in to fix it they saw a shiny thing that looked like a washer. We they got back to the office and remembered to look at it. As he scrubbed it he found an inscription with two names and a date. Apparently the husband of this couple, who have been married 63 years, lost his wedding ring over 10 years ago. They were able to find the owners and return the ring. What a happy ending.
When I was a kid my mom was doing some weeding in the backyard in the mud and her wedding ring fell off. She didn't notice until she came in the house to wash her hands. Then she called us girls to help her find it. No luck. Then she rallied the neighborhood children and said she'd give $5 to the person who could find her ring. That was actually a lot of money back then when gas was 26 cents per gallon. We never found it and I don't remember metal detectors being readily available.
Several years ago my mother bought my father a metal detector for his birthday. Dad found a old gold coin and set the metal detector to find it. Then my sister Christy placed it in a plastic bag and hid it in the dirt between the garage and the chicken house. Dad couldn't find it. Years later Christy pointed out the exact spot where she buried it under an inch of dirt. There were five of us with rakes trying to find this coin to no avail. About a year ago my dad had to dig a trench to fix irrigation pipe. He loaded a wheel barrow with dirt to refill the trench and saw a plastic bag with the gold coin was inside. That was like a needle in a haystack.
Recently at our home our daughter Jenee wanted to play Wii and Dance Dance Revolution. It is a neat exercise type dancing program where you match your feet to different spots on an exercise mat that has sensors in it that is plugged into the game console. This mat is quite large, maybe two feet by three feet with a cord and it is a couple inches thick. I estimate when it's rolled up to store it is at least the size of a yoga mat. We can't find it and it's not in its regular spot. I always say it didn't sprout legs and walk away. We gave up the search in the last two weeks figuring it will just come to us. I know we've looked almost everywhere, but we still haven't found it.
What have you lost and then found that would make a good follow-up story to this column? Give me a call; I'd love to write about it.
Lisa Welch is a Johnson Lane resident and can be reached at 267-9350.
