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 Divers
are a diverse bunch of people. We love to collect stuff that helps us
keep the memory of a great dive fresh in our minds. Sometimes we pick up
an empty shell and tuck it into the sleeve of our wetsuit and sometimes
we descend, armed with tools and lift bags to retrieve a great treasure.
Tucked in shady corners of our yards, you may discover an old train
wheel pulled from an abandoned quarry or a brass porthole with lizards
dozing on the warm glass. Our treasures range from a silly plastic
statue of a diver driving a sports car, pulled from some unsuspecting
child’s toy box while they were sleeping to a jar filled with tiny
prehistoric shark teeth.
Our walls are adorned with photographs of sea life and paintings of
beautiful underwater vistas. Not satisfied with the traditional fabrics
for bed and bath accessories, we hang dish towels with coral reef scenes
on kitchen towel hooks and brightly colored tropical fish swim across
our bedspreads in a cool, blue current. Hand soap in the shapes of
starfish, seahorses and shells, is scattered on tiles engraved with
ocean scenes. Ocean blue beach towels, sport lively orange and white
clownfish, snuggled into wavy sea anemones.
 Along
with the current set of dive equipment that we use when we visit our
favorite underwater aquarium, our garages and closets are filled with
backup sets of gear, wetsuits of different thickness and sizes (they
shrink you know). You’ll find some oddly matched items such as one red
fin and one black fin, strapless masks, bits and pieces of hose, tiny
bottles of mask defogger and a plethora of connectors and parts that
have broken off and are being saved in case we need them. All divers
have bins. It’s almost as thought we belong to some weird organization
that decrees that we must buy every plastic storage device so we can
maintain our current membership. When a bin gets full, do we empty it
out and start again? Certainly not; we just buy another bin and start
throwing all of those “can’t live without” items into the new bin. When
we get overwhelmed with the amount of stuff we’ve accumulated, we get
together and have a flea market and spend all of our time trying to
convince our fellow divers that they can’t live without some of our own
stuff in their garage full of bins. When visiting, it’s not unusual to
hear someone ask if that big, green frog hanging on your lanai used to
be at someone else’s home. It’s possible that a single set of fins could
rotate through the membership and eventually end up back with the
original owner in a couple of years.
Eclectic as it seems, our collections are an expression of our romance
with the underwater world. Thanks to the Lee County Library, Cape Coral
Branch, we have an opportunity to let others have a glimpse into our
mysterious adventures. Beginning on August 1st and running until
September 15th, the library is featuring a huge display of the
underwater art and artifacts of Caloosa Dive Club members.
If your first memory of scuba divers was Lloyd Bridges in the old Sea
Hunt television shows, you may get a little nostalgic when you see some
of the diving equipment that may have come from that era. If you don’t
know who Lloyd Bridges (aka Mike Nelson) is, then take this opportunity
to get a short glimpse of what it was like to dive in the early days.
Shark teeth of different sizes, collected on Venice Beach, will be
featured along with a recently found Megalodon tooth that may have you
wondering if you want to dip your toes into the sandy bottom along our
southwest Florida coastline.
Shells from local waters as well as distant Pacific regions will give
you an idea of what we find to look at when we are skimming along the
coral reefs. Although most divers have become more environmentally
sensitive over the years, back in the early years it was common practice
to pick up live shells, starfish and chunks of coral. We believe we are
wiser now and while our collections include some of these items, most of
us now collect by taking photographs and leaving everything where it
lives.
Artwork and photographs from members’ personal collections will be a
large part of the exhibition with subjects such as Tomato Clownfish from
the Pacific, Starry Eyed Hermit Crabs from our local Gulf waters, and
graceful Eagle Rays gliding over the reef. Brilliant soft corals from
the waters of Truk Lagoon in Micronesia hang along with a variety of
creatures found in the protected waters of Key Largo. Local artist, Jan
Dutton, also has some work on display.
Our fascination with diving the wrecks that are scattered along the East
Coast of the United States and some of the war relics that lie in remote
areas such as Apra Harbor, Guam will be readily apparent to visitors.
Some bottles and a brass spike were recovered from the Black Warrier, a
large wooden paddle wheeler sitting in the waters of New York. An engine
room plaque from a Japanese ship and the telegraph mechanism from the
last Cunard paddle steamer, the Scotia, were recovered in Guam in the
mid 1970’s.
We hope that everyone has a chance to visit the library and enjoy some
insight into the lives of the typical scuba diving enthusiast. |
