Living near Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio, it is always interesting to see what has washed ashore. Lake Erie has a sordid history of many shipwrecks throughout time, so quite a few fascinating things wash up on the beach including old buttons, silverware, children's toys, old jewelry, and beach glass.
Beach glass washes up on Lake Erie's shores on a regular basis, and if you know where to hunt for it, you can find a wealth of history in the rainbow of glass. Each piece represents a journey that has taken one hundred years or more to finally end up on the beach. The glass comes in an array of colors from white, to aqua, yellow, cobalt blue, shades of green, red, and brown. Most of the glass is quite different from the glass that bottles are made from now, but rarely is any writing or design left on the glass itself.
Sometimes pieces of fine china wash up. These tend to retain parts of their designs, and often look wonderful hanging from a chain. Another item that washes up on the beach near the old amusement park sites is glass marbles. At Euclid Beach Park, east of Cleveland, it used to be a habit of children to buy penny marbles during their week long stay near the park. At the end of their stay, they would toss the marbles off the end of the pier. Those marbles still wash ashore now, about one hundred years later.
The lake takes the identity of the glass away, and gives it a new identity. It represents life gone by, and the durability of what we leave behind. Beach glass is full of memories. Each piece can remind a person of bits of glassware that their grandparents used to have or their parents, china that used to line cupboards that no longer exist today. Beach glass makes us think of the journeys that our ancestors took to come to this country, mostly by boat, with all of their belongings.
The colors represent history from a bygone era, the deep red of the ships' lanterns, the cobalt blue of old pharmaceutical bottles. Marbled glass vases, and ocher colored glass bowls are all part of the era that has passed.
Each piece of glass is truly a gem, if not for its beauty alone, then for its history. The lake has left its mark on each piece, its waves and sand acting like a tumbler, smoothing out all the rough places and sharp edges, leaving behind a frosted surface. Not too different that what life does to us, over the years.
What will people find from our lives one hundred years from now that washes up on Lake Erie's shore?