Out of nearly 4,900 messages, Harold has received more than 3,100 written responses (he doesn’t offer his telephone number, he says, because he likes getting letters by mail, the old-fashioned way). The return addresses run the gamut of world geography: the United States, the Bahamas, South America, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, France, Germany, Russia\u2014even Africa.<\/p>\n
Some of Harold’s letters have been at sea, or at least at large, for years. Recent replies from Ireland and Norway have been a decade in coming. Harold launched his first message from a fishing boat in 1995. He simply wrote his name, address, and a request for response on a scrap of paper, slipped it into a glass soda bottle, and tossed it into the waves. Within months, he received a letter from the Magdalen Islands<\/a>, and he was hooked on a hobby that would become his life’s passion. The following May, he cast 250 messages into the sea.<\/p>\n “I used to write all of those out by hand, the first four or five years,” Harold told The Journal Pioneer<\/a> newspaper. “A lot of work writing.”<\/p>\n He still writes often, responding to everyone who contacts him, but he has switched to a photocopy system for his bottled messages. He now prints a standard letter and adds the launch date with a permanent marker to track how long it takes for a letter to make its journey. Each response excites him, whether it contains a letter, photos, or souvenirs from faraway places.<\/p>\n According to Harold, \u201cEvery bottle has its own story.\u201d<\/p>\n The coast of Prince Edward Island. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia, Chensiyuan.<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0Anyone read this book and\/or watch this movie?<\/p>\n Message in a Bottle (film) Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia. Quentin X (talk | contribs.)<\/p><\/div>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pop Quiz: If you tuck a message into a bottle and launch it into the Atlantic Ocean from Prince Edward Island, where will it end up? Take a guess\u2014there is more than one correct answer. Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/geograhy-prince_edward_red_cliffs1.jpg\" "\\"geograhy-prince_edward_red_cliffs1\\"")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/geography-message_in_a_bottle1.jpg\" "\\"geography-message_in_a_bottle1\\"")