The "I've Been Searching and Searching, But ...." Story

It was an ordinary day. Cleaning my desk, since I just never get a chance to see the wood top on it with all the clutter and such that fills the desk. Very seldom do I clean it, but it really needed it. At the end of the desk sits two small round bottles with neat ceramic tops, two tall bottles that are about an 1" square, and one real tall bottle that isabout 2 1/2" square. All the bottles have colorful beach scenes painted on them and at one time held MaDouDou rum from the island of St. Martin in the Caribbean. Enjoyed the rum, but enjoy the bottles even more, since inside them is sand that I have collected from over a century of beach traveling. Neat souvenir as well as being a very inexpensive one. Some have openings large enough to accomodate a few small sea shells, but none have any seaglass in them. Reason is that seaglass is extremely hard to find anymore. With all the plastic bottles replacing the glass ones, there are fewer bottles thrown into the ocean. Beach glass makes great jewelry if you find just the right piece and color. Seaglass is best found after high tide or when a storm may have created high waves washing the glass on to shore. At times you must look along the tide line through the debris that lines the beach. Depending on the color, it may be very tough to find. Green, brown and clear are the most common, but the hardest to find, since they blend in with all the debris, sand and shells that accumulate on the tide line. A true piece of seaglass will have been tumbled and tumbled in the ocean and frosted by sand over years and years of washing back and forth with the tides. The frosting is caused by lime and soda being leached from the glass by salt water as well as constant friction against sand, rocks and pebbles. Seaglass can be found all over the world and comes in a variety of colors depending on the origin of the glass. Soda bottles, beer bottles medicine bottles, jars, windowpanes and even spectacles are good sources of seaglass. Smaller pieces of seaglass are typically the easiest to find. Usually the stuff that you buy in craft stores is not true seaglass, since it is not frosted entirely around the piece. Some of the colors of seaglass and where they come from are: green is the most common and is usually from beer bottles; brown is also from beer bottles; amber is probably from old whiskey or medicine bottles, aqua color is from old ink or soda bottles or even fruit preserve jars; deep blue pieces are usually from old poison bottles; clear can come from juice or soda bottles as well as window panes or spectacles; and red, purple, black, yellow, and orange are a very rare find. An upcoming trip to Provo in the Turks and Caicos chain will give me another chance to see if I can find any seaglass. My prediction is probably not, but it is still worth the try as I roam the beaches looking for most anything that reflects light or relates to the sea. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - pixs from the top are: seaglass pendant, common source of sea glass, one of the few pieces of seaglass I have ever found.