The Blue Button

Our class joined a beach-cleaning project before sunrise. I wanted to finish quickly because I had promised to photograph the tide pools for the school website.

Near a pile of seaweed, I found a small blue button. It was scratched and covered with sand, but a tiny anchor was carved on its surface. I put it in my pocket and continued collecting plastic.

At the end of the morning, our leader showed us an old photograph of the beach from thirty years earlier. A fisherman in the picture wore a jacket with a row of blue buttons. The button in my pocket looked exactly like one of them.

I never learned who had lost it. Still, I photographed the button beside the cleaned shore and added it to the website article. The project became more than a record of rubbish; it also made the beach's past feel close to us.

The Blue Button

Our class joined a beach-cleaning project before sunrise. I wanted to finish quickly because I had promised to photograph the tide pools for the school website.

Near a pile of seaweed, I found a small blue button. It was scratched and covered with sand, but a tiny anchor was carved on its surface. I put it in my pocket and continued collecting plastic.

At the end of the morning, our leader showed us an old photograph of the beach from thirty years earlier. A fisherman in the picture wore a jacket with a row of blue buttons. The button in my pocket looked exactly like one of them.

I never learned who had lost it. Still, I photographed the button beside the cleaned shore and added it to the website article. The project became more than a record of rubbish; it also made the beach's past feel close to us.