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July 12, 2025

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9 Brevities

Message in a Bottle: 1973 is Calling You

November 12, 2020 by James Dissette

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One November day 47 years ago a Chestertown middle-schooler sealed a note in a Coke bottle and cast it into the Chester River hoping for contact with someone in the future. That day came last weekend when Kyle Gerson, his brother Matthias and father Eric were out kayaking along Still Pond Creek.

Gerson has a keen eye for spotting glass bottles. He collects them, along with coins and other found objects during his river outings and while scouring the landscape with a metal detector. 

Over the past few years he’s retrieved a depression era soda bottle manufactured in Chestertown, a turn of the century condiment jar, a pre-civil war Maryland militia belt buckle. 

But this weekend’s find was a little different. When the family returned home from their afternoon expedition, Kyle carefully slipped the note from its vessel.

Nov 6, 1973

Dear Finder,

This drift bottle is part of an experiment being done at Chestertown Middle School. Would you please send us a postcard to:

Chestertown Middle School
Campas (sic) Avenue
Chestertown, Maryland 21620

giving the location where the bottle was found.

Thank You,
7-2-B

This video is approximately five minutes long. The photograph is of Kyle and his brother Matthias.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 9 Brevities

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Letters to Editor

  1. Kyle Gerson says

    November 11, 2020 at 1:30 PM

    This is Kyle from the video. You did a fantastic job on this article and it was a pleasure to share my story with you. I just want to make one minor correction; the pre-Civil war (but used during it and frequently found at Civil War battle sites) militia belt buckle was a design used across the United States, more common in the south but there is at least one example that was traced back to a Pennsylvania state militia member who fought in the Civil War. This means that my militia belt buckle cannot be conclusively identified as one used in a Maryland militia or any other specific state militia.

    Thanks again for this wonderful opportunity to share the story with you!

    PS: I am always looking for new places to metal detect or search for relics at, and am hoping to reach out to anyone in this area who would like me to hunt for treasure on their property or search for missing valuables with my metal detector.

  2. Steve Moss says

    November 13, 2020 at 7:57 AM

    What a great story. Congratulations Kyle on a great find. It would be great if you could near from someone from the class.

  3. Patti says

    November 14, 2020 at 5:51 PM

    Very interesting thanks for sharing. Should try to find the person that wrote the letter.

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