Tales of things lost .... and found?

[Treehugger]

Anyone have interesting "lost and found" stories?

Being a bit on the absent-minded side, I probably have too many. Like the time I "lost" my car. It was only when I was in the middle of filing a police report that I finally remembered where I had left it (in the parking lot of a grocery store 24 hours earlier.) Amazing what stress and sleep deprivation in grad school can do to you.

My favorite story of all though is not quite lost & found, more like donated and found.

Back sometime in the early 90s, Mr. Treehugger read a series of alternate history novels which he loved, his absolute favorite being one in which extraterrestrial lizards come to earth in the middle of WWII and precede to disrupt history. He kept trying to get me to read it, and maybe I'm prejudiced, but the premise just sounded too ridiculous to be interesting. When he finally realized I was never going to be interested in reading a WWII history that involved giant lizards, he just donated that book to a local used book seller so others could enjoy the story too. I told him: "Yeah, I don't want to burst your bubble or anything, but that book's probably not going to leap off the shelves."

Fast forward about four years. My parents (who at that time lived about 2000 miles away) finally flew out to visit us. One day, when Mr. Treehugger and I were both busy, they just went out on their own. When they got back, my father was incredibly happy. Treehugger_Dad: "You wouldn't believe what I found in your used book store downtown! I've been trying to find this alternative history book about alien lizards disrupting WWII and I have looked everywhere for it. And who would have guessed that I would find it in some little second hand book shop in <boring, flyover state> and yet ..... here it is!!!

So, no one in all these years wanted the supposedly amazing book my husband donated ... until my father comes along? Hmmmm. Weird.

[sinenomine]

Kind of akin to this: years ago, I mailed out holiday cards, one of which was to friends at, let's hypothetically say, 10 Elm Street in Everyville. A couple days later, a work colleague walked into my office looking bemused, and handed me that card, which he had received at his address, 20 Oak Street in Everyville. It had been mis-delivered, but ironically, to someone I knew. The addresses were miles apart, too.

[fishbrains]

When I was a child, I threw a boomerang and lost it. I've lived in fear ever since.




Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

[kaysixteen]

Ah, well I never lost Dr. Harry Turtledove, the master of Alternative History.   He is getting on in years now and no longer writing 2-3 books a year as he did in his heyday say 1990-2005.  Some of his AH stuff is tinged with sf and/or fantasy, such as the alternative WWII with the space lizards series you mention (which I do not consider his very best work), and some is 'pure ah', where no sf or 'alien space bats' elements are included, such as an excellent series of 20th c. where the South won the Civil War one.  And he also writes more fantasy-oriented novels based on various aspects of history, including his 'Videssos' series, based on a magical version of Byzantium (his PhD is in Byzantine studies).   I heartily recommend reading him, and do so at all opportunities.

[mamselle]

Kind of akin to this: years ago, I mailed out holiday cards, one of which was to friends at, let's hypothetically say, 10 Elm Street in Everyville. A couple days later, a work colleague walked into my office looking bemused, and handed me that card, which he had received at his address, 20 Oak Street in Everyville. It had been mis-delivered, but ironically, to someone I knew. The addresses were miles apart, too.

I got one like that from London....not anyone I knew, but my exact street address and a London postal code (with 6 digits/letters) very similar to my US code (5 digits, of course).

I Skyped them and told them what had happened, then sent it on.

Never heard back, but it didn't come back to me, either.

M.

[apl68]

An acquaintance of the family lost and found a Civil War ancestor.  This great-great grandfather/uncle/cousin (I can't recall which) joined a major Confederate raid up in Missouri and never returned.  For generations the family wondered what had ever happened to this relative.

Over a century later this acquaintance met somebody from Missouri who turned out to have an odd family tradition.  During the Civil War a sick or wounded Confederate soldier was left with their household.  He died there.  The family buried him on their land, and made a point of tending the grave down the generations so that he would not be forgotten.  The acquaintance discovered that this buried soldier was his long-lost ancestor.

It sounds incredible, but apparently the two families got together and documented it all.

[zyzzx]

The best lost and found I've ever seen:
While rafting through the Grand Canyon, one of our group's river guidebooks was poorly secured and went overboard on a big rapid. Days later and many 10's of miles farther downstream, in a calm stretch of water, the book (yes, the same book) suddenly popped up to the surface directly next to one of the rafts. It felt freaking miraculous - you can find things in eddies all the time, but popping up in the middle of the river days later at just the right time? Amazing, like a gift from the river gods.

[mahagonny]

Yeah, now that I'm older and taking an SSRI every day, I feel almost like a virgin again.

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm faceblind. So when my partner and I go out in the world, if we get separated, I routinely "lose" her.

A few years ago, we went our separate ways in a Value Village. When I was done with my browsing, I sought her out and continued our conversation from before, only to discover that I was talking to a totally different--and totally confused/creeped out--very tall blonde woman.

[ab_grp]

I love these stories.  Especially when years or miles are transcended.

I think I told his one on the old fora, and I warn that it is a story beginning with rampant stupidity.  Years ago, friends were down in the Caribbean, got extremely drunk, and decided to go swimming at something like 1 or 2 AM.  They swam out pretty far, and friend eventually realized that she had lost both her engagement ring and wedding ring.  I guess they just slipped right off at some point during all the frolicking.  So, the group searched pretty frantically to no avail and returned to their rental feeling pretty downtrodden.  The next day, her husband went out and managed to find both rings! I thought it was pretty miraculous, and it made for a good story to share with the other passengers on my delayed flight down there.

[Treehugger]

So great! Thanks for the stories!

Ah, well I never lost Dr. Harry Turtledove, the master of Alternative History.   He is getting on in years now and no longer writing 2-3 books a year as he did in his heyday say 1990-2005.  Some of his AH stuff is tinged with sf and/or fantasy, such as the alternative WWII with the space lizards series you mention (which I do not consider his very best work), and some is 'pure ah', where no sf or 'alien space bats' elements are included, such as an excellent series of 20th c. where the South won the Civil War one.  And he also writes more fantasy-oriented novels based on various aspects of history, including his 'Videssos' series, based on a magical version of Byzantium (his PhD is in Byzantine studies).   I heartily recommend reading him, and do so at all opportunities.

Yes, that was the author ....

[mamselle]

Lost: humor and gratitude, maybe....

Found: a reminder of a time when it existed...

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSlWDlXCelk

M.

[quasihumanist]

Kind of akin to this: years ago, I mailed out holiday cards, one of which was to friends at, let's hypothetically say, 10 Elm Street in Everyville. A couple days later, a work colleague walked into my office looking bemused, and handed me that card, which he had received at his address, 20 Oak Street in Everyville. It had been mis-delivered, but ironically, to someone I knew. The addresses were miles apart, too.

I got one like that from London....not anyone I knew, but my exact street address and a London postal code (with 6 digits/letters) very similar to my US code (5 digits, of course).

I Skyped them and told them what had happened, then sent it on.

Never heard back, but it didn't come back to me, either.

M.

Ontario, or England?

[mamselle]

Ha!

England.

M.