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Message in a bottle: Children find a note left in the Kickapoo 41 years before

by | May 1, 2020 | Front Page

Todd and Tracy Clark’s children broke open the bottle to find a message from a child that had been written 41 years earlier.

The note states, “Hello! My name is Diana Polstin, and my address is Box 130. I live in Wilton, Wis. I would like to have a friendly pen pal. Whoever finds this, would you please write to me at Diana Polstin, Box 130, Wilton, Wis. I am 10 years old and will be in 6th grade. My birthday will be July 27. I’ll be 11 then. Whoever finds this … write to me and tell me how old you are and if you are a boy or a girl. I would be happy to know.”

It sounds like a scene from a book: Playing along the riverbanks, children come upon a message in a bottle cast off decades before.
But that was a real-life experience for the children of Todd and Tracy Clark of rural Wilton. Last weekend, Tracy and Todd were working on fencing near the Kickapoo River while their kids amused themselves on the banks and in the water. A large tree had fallen across the river, and the kids played on it and crossed it, Tracy wrote in an email to the County Line.
One of the children look down and saw something in the tree roots. It was a bottle, and it had something inside. They tried opening it, but the top was rusted shut, so they broke it to get it open, finding a Ziplock bag containing a note.

“They took the note out and began to read it,” Tracy wrote. “Realizing that they may have discovered something unique, they brought the note over to us and had us read it.”

Diana Polstin of Wilton, a 10-year-old, had composed the note.

“Well, Todd knew right away who she was because he grew up outside of Wilton,” Tracy wrote.

In the note, Polstin asks that whoever finds the bottle should contact her and become her pen pal. So the Clark family found her on Facebook and sent her a message. 

Tracy wrote, “She was so surprised about our find, and she couldn’t believe it.”

Now living in California, Polstin works as a nurse. Her parents, Beata and Rudolph “Rudy” Polstin, owned and operated Polstin Grocery in Wilton from 1977 to 1996.

Tracy wrote, “She told us that she had written that note 41 years ago and had forgotten about it. We were laughing because we said you never know when that pen pal is going to reach out and contact you.

“I thought I would share this feel-good story during this time of craziness and uncertainty. Todd and I thought God’s timing was perfect for her due to the fact that she is a nurse on the frontlines during this pandemic. She said this simple little note has brought her so much joy, and, yes, she did receive a new pen pal — a whole family of seven!

“We have since exchanged texts, video chats, and photos. She was laughing and said that her story has inspired her son, who is 22, and his girlfriend to write notes and place them in bottles to see what happens.”