14-year-old put a note in a bottle and tossed it in the ocean as an 'experiment' — 50 years later, a call left him surprised

As a teenager, the boy hoped to find answers to his curiosity. 50 years later, the closure is surreal.

PUBLISHED 2 DAYS AGO

(L) A note inserted in a bottle that was tossed in the ocean. (R) A man talking on his mobile phone. (Representative Cover Image Source: Pexels | Left image by Snapwire and right one by SHVETS production)

Teenage years are epically fun. They are usually curious, often want to try different and crazy things and hope to find answers. However, as time passes, they outgrow these experiences or forget about them altogether. The then-14-year-old Peter R. Thompson tried something similar as a “social experiment,” per My Modern Met. However, when years and decades passed, he didn’t dwell on it, much less hoped to find an answer. 50 years later, he was astonished to receive a call that took him right back to that fateful day when he was 14. His social experiment finally had some progress.

Note in bottle landing on beach shore. (Representative Image Source: Pexels| Photo by Snapwire)

Thompson, the then-teenager, was curious to see whether messages in a bottle were really found if thrown into the ocean or if it was just fiction. So he decided to try for himself. He wrote a note and put it in what is now a vintage glass Pepsi bottle, and into the Atlantic it went. 50 years passed by, and the teenager, now grown into a man well into his senior years, moved on from his social experiment. That’s when two brothers, Clint and Evan Buffington, made their trip to a secluded island in the Bahamas. They were out on a fun and refreshing trip, but little did they know they were going to stumble upon something iconic.

Teenage boy writing note. (Representative Image Source: Pexels| Photo by Julia M Cameron)

Recalling how the day went, Clint noted, “The waves are lapping, the sun is glistening on the water, not a cloud in the sky. All of a sudden, I hear my walkie-talkie crackle to life and my brother says something like, ‘You’re not going to believe what I just found,’” he said, per WCVB Channel 5 Boston. The duo had just discovered Thomson’s possession. Documenting the thrilling experience on his Facebook page, Clint shared how he carefully cut open the glass bottle. The tricky part was to open the nearly 50-year-old note and answer all the questions running through the duo’s minds.

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In another video, he wrote in the captions, “After who knows how many trips around the North Atlantic, drifting past whales and cargo ships, shimmering under the Northern Lights, it wound up on a very sparsely inhabited out-island of the Bahamas and rested in the sun.” What struck him was understanding that “somewhere in there, my brother and I were born, grew up, went to school, got married and had kids. And all that time, this message was waiting to be found.” The duo opened the note and were shocked to find broken handwriting in a still-intact note.

The note read, “I’m a ninth-grade student from Pentucket Regional Junior High School. This is a science experiment because I am in an oceanography course. Will you please send this back to the address at the bottom and say where you found it, what day and time, and how? This was launched by a Coast Guard ship in the month of May 1976.” Clint noted that though the message was simple, it had so much tied to it in the abstract. “The dreams of where it would travel, where it might wind up, who might find it,” he said, thinking of the then 14-year-old’s mindset while writing the note.

The story was circulated throughout the internet, and Boston journalist Emily Maher tracked Thompson and knocked on his door to let him know his experiment worked. In another video, Clint revealed, “Just like that, we were on the phone with Pete! We were in shock! It was… how do I say this? Completely freaking nuts.” “It’s amazing. It’s almost 50 years later. It’s a big surprise,” Thompson said. Nothing screams closure like this iconic story.