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Message in a bottle found 35 years after being thrown overboard
The Advocate ^ | 05 Oct 2008 | Sarah Lipman

Posted on 10/07/2008 1:45:27 PM PDT by BGHater

Evan Buffington knew what he had found as soon as he spotted it in the sand.

The bottle was imbedded in a small island no more than 48 square miles called Middle Caicos, part of the British West Indies. Buffington found it while vacationing with his family in late August, on a hike with the men of the family. Buffington, a resident of Makanda, Ill., dug out the bottle and brushed off the sand.

It was a clear glass Tab cola bottle, with a cork inside and an aluminum screw top to keep it sealed. Some moisture had seeped in, but its contents appeared to be preserved.

Inside was a note.

Buffington, 26, waited until his return to the United States to retrieve the note - allowing time for the excess moisture to dry. Upon opening the bottle, a note scribbled on a piece of stationery from a Norwegian America cruise ship, parched and aged from the sun, fell out.

"I am on the Vistafjord. Write back to Andrew Tallos," the message said in a child's handwriting. "324 Haviland Rd, Stamford, Conn. 06903."

Evan Buffington, right, 26, and his father pose on a beach in August on Middle Caicos, where they found a bottle there with a message from a Stamford boy

The note on stationery from a Norwegian America cruise ship dated Dec. 29, 1973, was found in a clear glass Tab bottle.

Andrew Tallos of Stamford, now in his 40s, placed a message in a bottle in 1973 that was recently discovered in Turks & Caicos. 'I really had forgotten all about the bottle, the vacation, so it's interesting to hear that it's turned up and survived,' he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at stamfordadvocate.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: bottle; cruise; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; letter; marines; message; messageinabottle
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1 posted on 10/07/2008 1:45:28 PM PDT by BGHater
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To: BGHater

I’m surprised that the left doesn’t have someone to file suits against these people once we can identify them for their past littering.


2 posted on 10/07/2008 1:47:49 PM PDT by ansel12 (The old Sarah smile. She is some girl, Sarah Barracuda. Hell, she's a natural-born world-shaker.)
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To: ansel12

Is that a Titleist?


3 posted on 10/07/2008 1:49:15 PM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: massgopguy

Are you a Marine Biologist?


4 posted on 10/07/2008 1:50:13 PM PDT by scottdeus12 (Jesus is real, whether you believe in Him or not.)
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To: ansel12

No kidding. You know that’s the true cause of global warming. ;>


5 posted on 10/07/2008 1:50:49 PM PDT by InsensitiveConservative
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To: BGHater
“Upon opening the bottle, a note scribbled on a piece of stationery from a Norwegian America cruise ship, parched and aged from the sun, fell out.”

It was Obama’s birth certificate.

6 posted on 10/07/2008 1:52:08 PM PDT by wolfcreek (I see miles and miles of Texas....let's keep it that way.)
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To: BGHater

I’m not convinced it’s the real bottle.


7 posted on 10/07/2008 1:52:14 PM PDT by gunnyg
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To: gunnyg

It was the bottle before it wasn’t...


8 posted on 10/07/2008 1:54:43 PM PDT by RaceBannon (Innocent until proven guilty; The Pendleton 8: We are not going down without a fight)
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To: BGHater

“My sister, Lisa, remembers the vacation really well,” Tallos said. “She’s even more excited than I am. I really had forgotten all about the bottle, the vacation, so it’s interesting to hear that it’s turned up and survived.”

Tallos was a shy, quiet child, said Lisa Seabrook, Tallos’ sister. He was respectful and smart, but the two had an “unusual” childhood. His father, Wallace, was a pilot for Pan American World Airways and his mother, Wilhelmina, was a stewardess. The family traveled a lot, and the two were often pulled out of school to go on extended family vacations around the world.

That changed when their parents fell ill, Seabrook said. Tallos’ father died of pancreatic cancer and cancer of the lymph nodes in June 1973, six months before the message was written. Their mother died of lung cancer in 1975. Tallos was about 13 then.

Before she died, Seabrook said they went one last vacation - the maiden voyage of the Vistafjord, a 25,000-ton passenger cruise ship, and the largest ship at the time. It left from New York and traveled the Southern Caribbean.

One night after dinner, Seabrook said, the Tallos family gathered at the stern of the ship and helped compose the message in a bottle. Using stationery from their cabin, a pen and a Tab bottle from dinner, Tallos wrote his name and address, with a request for the finder to write back. Together, they sealed the bottle and threw it off the back of the Vistafjord.

It is the last happy memory they had as a family, Seabrook said.

“I don’t think he ever recovered,” Seabrook said. “He was always shy, but never nervous like he is now. It’s been very hard on him - he works and keeps to himself at home with few friends and no dates.

“It rocks your confidence to the core to lose both of your parents so young. We never had anyone to ask questions to - what’s right or wrong.”


9 posted on 10/07/2008 1:55:49 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: BGHater
" D R I N K   M O R E   O V A L T I N E "
10 posted on 10/07/2008 1:56:08 PM PDT by Petronski (Please pray for the success of McCain and Palin. Every day, whenever you pray.)
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To: BGHater

I wonder if he would like to register to vote 0bama.


11 posted on 10/07/2008 1:56:16 PM PDT by texas_mrs
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To: BGHater

The Liberal spin on this:

Ocean trash is Bush’s fault!


12 posted on 10/07/2008 1:56:29 PM PDT by The Unknown Republican
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To: BGHater

Thank you for this wonderful post and a break from the political nonsense!

I throw bottles in the water with messages all the time- never got one back yet.


13 posted on 10/07/2008 1:56:51 PM PDT by Mr. K (Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help)
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To: BGHater

I question the timing of this find...


14 posted on 10/07/2008 1:58:16 PM PDT by Paisan
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To: BGHater

OH NOES IT’S THE OCTOBER SURPRISE!!


15 posted on 10/07/2008 1:59:17 PM PDT by mysterio
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To: texas_mrs
"I wonder if he would like to register to vote 0bama. "

I think all he would need for identification in Ohio is that note!

Free-for-all VOTING in Ohio! Vote Early, Vote Often

Pretend to be a democrap to make sure you get the VIP treatment *wink*

16 posted on 10/07/2008 1:59:59 PM PDT by Mr. K (Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help)
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To: BGHater
Great story! Time in a bottle. . .
17 posted on 10/07/2008 2:00:22 PM PDT by cricket (America's Freedom Rings! Thank You ~ U..S.A. Military~)
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To: nmh
“I don’t think he ever recovered,” Seabrook said. “He was always shy, but never nervous like he is now. It’s been very hard on him - he works and keeps to himself at home with few friends and no dates.

“It rocks your confidence to the core to lose both of your parents so young. We never had anyone to ask questions to - what’s right or wrong.”

Heartbreaking.

My heart aches for children who have to cope with such circumstances.

18 posted on 10/07/2008 2:01:41 PM PDT by TChris (So many useful idiots...)
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To: BGHater

I found one once on the beach of Litle Saint Simons Island, Georgia. The note came from some class project in S. Carolina, and had been launched about 3 months earlier. I wrote back to the kid as instructed, but never heard back. It was a bit exciting to find a note in a (plastic) bottle... would have preferred to find an IBM stock certificate from 1946.


19 posted on 10/07/2008 2:01:52 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: BGHater

20 posted on 10/07/2008 2:05:23 PM PDT by relictele
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