Bottle Cap Treasures

For several years I’ve been walking around the track at our local park.

It’s a standard quarter mile of level blacktop walkway. The field at its center

is grass and weeds and gopher holes. There are always kids and dogs and old

people sitting or walking, playing catch or kicking a ball. It’s a nice place ringed

by scrub oaks on grassy hillsides. My goal is to walk 12 laps. I listen to music

and sometimes carry a notepad so I can jot down story ideas. It’s easy to lose

count of how many laps I’ve walked so I started picking up a stone that I would

find on each revolution and set the stone on a garbage bin. 1 stone for each

revolution. One day I picked up a bottle cap instead. You don’t see these very

often. It was creased on top and the tines on one edge were pried up from the

opener.  It said Dr. Pepper in bright red flowing script. It looked happy. I used the

bottle cap instead of a rock for that revolution. And when I finished my walk that

day I tossed Dr. Pepper behind the bin.

He was still there the next day so I picked him up and used him again to record my

progress. I started looking for other bottle caps to use as markers and soon started

finding many abandoned objects along the trail. I found a little green Army

Man, rifle to shoulder and looking for an enemy. I found three plastic beads connected

by string. Each square bead had a letter, B   E   C.  Part of a bracelet was my guess. I found

many plastic screw tops from water bottles. I had little interest in these. As time went on

I found more bottle caps and interesting little bits of larger things. I moved my collection

up the hill and behind a large bush. When I would arrive for a walk I would collect a few

of them and use them for markers. I didn’t need 12 of them anymore. I would use only two.

I would set one at the 12 o’clock position on the top of the bin and move the second to

the 1 o’clock position after I finished my first lap. After the second lap I move the marker

from 1 o’clock to 2 o’clock  and on around the imaginary clock face on the

top to the bin for each revolution.

During one of my walks I noticed a little girl with a plastic bag, her Mom also had a bag and

they were walking the trail picking up bits of paper and other debris. There was a soccer
game in the field and a lot of people about. I saw a few more people with their kids picking
up trash. Highly commendable. It also occurred to me that my markers on the bin were a
prime candidate for their endeavor. From across the field I watched a woman walk to the
bin and sweep my two markers into the center opening. I thought this pretty funny and when
I got back to the bin I was able to easily retrieve the markers and set them again on their
proper places. I kept an eye on the bin and a few minutes later a man walked over with his
bag and didn’t sweep them in but picked them up and put them in his bag!  My first thought
was to run over there and ask for them back with of course an explanation. But on second
thought I laughed at myself and thought I would seem to be a crazy person. After a few
more laps I found a plastic stir stick with a strange embossed symbol on it. Quite a prize!
My 12 laps complete I headed for the exit to the park. I stopped to drop my new prize
behind the bush and found that all my treasures were gone.

It was a shock to see the little pile of bits and pieces I’d collected gone. Some I will miss
but I have a new appreciation for the things that are dear to me, large and small.