BY BILL STERLING, Special to the Eastern Shore Post —
Frankie Brady, 64, who lives outside Cape Charles with his wife, Debbie, started metal detecting in 2011 because his doctor said he should start walking as exercise to help with some health issues.
“I thought if I was going to walk, I might as well do something useful like finding old coins, war relics, and jewelry,” he said. “I have a fairly good collection of found items, including a three-pound cannon ball.”
Walking on Cape Charles beach shortly after Labor Day was more to get in shape than to find anything.
“I’ve walked that beach hundreds of times and never found anything of any value,” Brady said. “Many of the farmers give me permission to search their fields after the crops have been harvested. That’s where I found most of my items.”
But on Tuesday, Sept. 3, his metal detector picked up an object about five inches under the sand while he was walking the beach. He dug it up, rinsed it off, and saw it was a class ring in excellent condition.
“I assumed at first it was lost over the weekend by someone visiting Cape Charles, but then I saw it was a Northampton High School ring from 1994.”
The name inside the ring led him to Jeff Melson, a 1994 graduate of Northampton High School, who is now a chief petty officer in the United States Coast Guard, stationed in Elizabeth City, N.C. A Facebook search soon connected them.
Frankie’s wife, Debbie, called and asked Melson if he was from the Eastern Shore and when the last time he visited was.
He replied that he had been on the Shore a few weeks earlier but had not lost anything, adding that he did lose his high school ring on the Cape Charles beach 30 years ago.
When Frankie heard that, he could hardly believe it.
“I just about fell out on the floor when I heard it had been lost 30 years ago. It looked like it just came out of the box,” he said.
Frankie doesn’t think the ring has been in that location all that time.
“They dredged the creek last year and pumped some sand on the beach. At least that’s my theory,” he said.
Melson remembers well the day he lost it.
“I left that ring on the beach in the pocket of my girlfriend’s sundress while we were swimming with some friends, and when we came back it was gone,” he said. “We searched and searched for it, but it was nowhere to be found. That was around 1994 or 1995, so for someone to find it in 2024, and the fact that it still looks like it’s brand new is crazy. I definitely never thought I would see it again.”
Melson also appreciates the kindness of the Bradys.
“Debbie and Frankie were nice enough to give the ring to my Mom and Dad (Polly and Dennis Melson), who brought it to me in North Carolina,” he said.
“They refused to take any money for it. I’ve been in the Coast Guard for 25 years since leaving the Shore in 1998, so I got them a military challenge coin from my Chief’s Mess as a token of my appreciation that I will bring them the next time I make it home. I am really thankful to both of them for finding it and then making the effort to return it to me.”
In those 30 years since losing the ring, Melson, 48, now married with two children, has been stationed at the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Sacramento, Calif., the Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala., and the Coast Guard Aviation Projects Acquisition Center in Waco, Texas, before accepting his current assignment at the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Elizabeth City.
Ironically, though he grew up near the water’s edge and then joined the Coast Guard, he has spent no time on a boat, preferring aviation to the seas.
As for Brady, he has spent 43 years working for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and is currently a tunnel equipment operator.
He’s set to retire in six months, after which he will spend even more time metal detecting and likely adding to his vast collection of found items.
“It makes you feel good when you can return something to the owner,” Brady said.
