A child’s joke from a New Jersey beach sat out in the wild for 53 years, then came back with a twist.
Laurie Blair was 9 years old in 1973 when she set a message in a bottle adrift from 2nd Street beach in Ocean City. She and her sister, Allie, were at the beach when their mother suggested they write a note and send it off in a bottle.
Laurie came up with the story and asked Allie to write it down. The note said: “This bottle was adrift on August 20, 1973 on 2nd Street beach Ocean City as my captors were transporting me to an island off shore in the Atlantic. Please notify my family that a band of ruthless sponge fisherman are forcing me to dive for them in shark infested waters! Please return this note to my home in (address). You may have saved my life! Thank you. Laurie Blair.”
In June 2026, Avalon native John Kauterman found the bottle during a routine wetlands clean-up in South Jersey. Kauterman and his friend Kevin Dougherty had started a nonprofit, The Tidelands Initiative, to clean up the region’s wetlands.
After Kauterman posted the find on Facebook, people online helped connect him with Allie Blair.
The discovery came with sadness too. Laurie Blair died from cancer in 2017.
According to the source article, Laurie studied theater in college, got married, and enjoyed photography, jewelry-making and blogging.
Allie Blair asked Kauterman to mail her the letter. She plans to place it in a shadow box and display it in her home.
The timing also stood out. Laurie sent the letter 9 years after her birth, and it was found 9 years after her death. Laurie and Kauterman also share a birthday.
Kauterman said it is common for him to find glass bottles from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s washed ashore alongside present-day water bottles.
He hopes to clean up all of South Jersey and help preserve the habitats that still exist there.
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