Existential Pickle

Found in a parking deck in late 2002. The text appears to be written on the back of an envelope When I read these words for the first time, I said out loud to no one in particular, “Well, aren’t we all?”

White Lightning

As a North Carolina native and having spent my whole life there, I had liked to think that I knew everything about it; but, sometimes you can get deep into the countryside and find things so authentic and so foreign that you feel like you are in a completely different country. This was found at … Continued

H.P.

I found this in a rental car at the airport when I was on vacation in the Carolinas.

Love and Ansel Adams

My friend and I found this tucked in an Ansel Adams photography book at the Goodwill. The message was especially poignant, as we figured Dad must have died for this to reach the donation pile.

The Pledge

I walked out of my (shitty) apartment one spring morning in 1991 and found this message scotch taped to every post and pole along three blocks of McClintock Road. I use the find regularly in my fiction writing classes, and it still moves me after all these years. I wish the scanner could capture the … Continued

Envelope

My wife and I drove by a soft-cushioned chair that had been set out and thought “Hey, someone threw away a perfectly good chair that might look great upstairs!” We loaded the chair into my truck and drove it home. It smelled slightly of cat pee so we decided to rip out the cloth bottom … Continued

I Want Us to Last Forever

I found this on a busy urban road, lying face-down on the sidewalk in front of an apartment complex.

Undershorts

I found this lying on the sidewalk while out for my daily run. The note is written on the back of a coupon for a massage spa.