The Saga of the Wayward Cap— and the residents who care enough

MEMBER COLUMN

by Lori Chamberlain

LW contributor

Recently, a neighbor of mine lost a favorite baseball cap. It’s not an expensive cap, but one that had traveled all the way from New Zealand as a memento of a wonderful South Pacific vacation.

The cap disappeared somewhere between the golf course and his home in Mutual 12. Hoping someone might have spotted it, I posted a photo and a “lost hat” notice on the Seal Beach Leisure World Facebook page.

And that’s when “The Saga of the Wayward Cap” began.

Soon after my post, someone reported seeing the cap on St. Andrews near Interlachen. Aha! We had our first clue.

Then came more sightings and messages. Someone thought it had turned up in Mutual 2. A photo surfaced. Then I even heard a rumor that perhaps the hat was being offered for sale. Or was someone simply trying to find its owner?

The messages kept coming. Some information turned out to be correct, some not quite, but everyone was trying to help. Residents passed along sightings, comments, photos and little bits of information, and I followed the trail. Eventually, the clues led to Leisure World dog walker, or “dog whisperer” Gidget Bushinsky, who told me she might know where the cap was. And she was right. One week after the first post about the missing cap, the little New Zealand “traveler” found its way home. Thanks to Gidget, the cap was returned to my neighbor, who was delighted to have his old friend back where it belonged—on his head.

Kudos to Gidget and to everyone who helped. But what struck me most about this feel-good story wasn’t really the hat. It was the people who cared enough to notice, send a message, share a post, ask around or remember seeing something that might help a neighbor they may not even know.

We often talk about Leisure World being a community, but every once in a while, something small reminds us what that word really means.

In this case, all it took was one lost cap, a Facebook post, a determined neighbor, another helpful neighbor, and the wonderful Leisure World network. Sometimes it’s the little things that show us just how good our neighbors can be.