We spent the day at the beach and the kids recruited me to help them search for sea glass.

Sea glass comes in many forms, mostly broken beer, wine and cooler bottles, once someone’s drunken castaways are now a treasure trove of gems for children’s crafts and collectibles.

I wasted several hours hunting for shards of Old Vienna and remnants of Old Milwaukee and Baby Duck with my kids.

So many hours in fact, I considered opening a stand selling t-shirts that read, “I’ve been looking all day for beach glass and all I found was this ugly t-shirt” (I did in fact find two ugly t-shirts)

Then things got interesting.

The kids started trading two brown pieces (Budweiser) for one green (Moosehead), two clears (Smirnoff Ice) for one blue (Apple juice?), or everything they had for one blue/green with silver on the back (Gerber baby food jars??)

Commerce comes in many forms. I fully support the saying, “Something is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.”

In the case of beach glass, our kids were willing to trade our mini-van for two blues and one brown (large) or two blues and one brown (unique shape). There appeared to be a plethora of clears suggesting there are more people who stumble away from the beach leaving their cooler bottles behind than any other group of hard, beach drinkers.

I have started drinking a rare type of rose since the beach glass search.

I have a lathe (to smooth edges) and an industrial-style sander to buff up the sides.

We’ll all be rich.