by Isi Esene

What would you want as a reward if you found a message in a bottle which promised a reward for anyone who found it?

Sean Keown had shipped a bottle containing a note from his favourite swimming hole on the White River in Rochester, Vermont 35 years ago with a promise of reward for anyone who finds it.

The glass bottle with a note was found recently near the Bellows Falls dam by 14-year-old Justin Shepard. It was missing its cork, but there was still enough information inside it to track down the writer, Keown.

Shepard found the uncorked bottle while exploring the area with his father. Although the note in the bottle was wet, it was still readable.

According to WCAX-TV, the teen obtained the original author’s contact details from Google and later sent a copy of the note to him.

“I got his phone call and he said he’d been waiting 35 years for someone to find it,” Shepard said.

Keown said he had already forgotten about the notes and could not believe someone had found them 75 miles away from where it was sent.

He said he never imagined that he would ever see that piece of his childhood again.

“I hadn’t thought about it in years [and] I had no idea that I would get it back,” he said.

About the reward promised to the note’s finder, Keown said since he had been in elementary school at the time of sending out the note, he had been thinking of a candy bar or soda as an appropriate reward. Now, however, he thinks the reward needs to be upgraded to cash instead.

How much the cash reward will be is yet to be decides.