Coke® Bottle With “Hope” Notecard Inside

2000

Unusual items show up on or around the Fence with regularity. In fact, especially today, an assortment of seemingly random items tends to be the norm rather than the exception—acting as the environment within which items of more readily perceived significance make their home. For example, you will never encounter at the Fence a note to a lost loved one or a note of gratefulness to first responders that sits by itself. It will always be surrounded by things such as bracelets, ribbons, dinosaur toys and teddy bears, locks and keychains. One cannot capture the essence of the Fence without considering these items.

This Coke bottle from the year 2000 is a good example of this kind of item, but also of how visitors sometimes personalize or add specificity to seemingly random objects. This bottle was left with a notecard with “Hope” written in colored pencil. Short, simple messages like this remain common on the Fence today. In addition, items like this can provide something like a historical timestamp, as this is a special edition Coca-Cola® bottle celebrating the College Football National Championship victory by the University of Oklahoma that year. In some ways, items like this are mini portraits of the Fence itself, combining everyday objects, historical snapshots and messages of hope.