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This envelope was post marked January 1991.

Corporal Hershel Robinson was 20 years old at the time.

Kevin says that his only guess is that it was flagged as suspicious at the time. 

This envelope was post marked January 1991.

Corporal Hershel Robinson was 20 years old at the time.

Kevin says that his only guess is that it was flagged as suspicious at the time. 

Just imagine for a few minutes that you are out in the midst of the hottest place you’ve ever been in your life, not a tree to be seen, men in kaki camo everywhere you look, walking purposefully to and fro, but wait, there’s one guy actually putting some of the ever present, invasive, grit in your teeth, your food, your underwear, sand into what looked like little clear jewelry bags. He filled them to the top, sealed them and quickly went on his way. 

The few men who happened to notice quickly forgot the strange phenomenon (who would want to save sand?) and went on with their business. The guy who gathered the sand went inside, sat down, wrote an address that should get it to where it was going, put it in another envelope and then sealed it all over with clear tape, placed it atop some outgoing mail in a wire mesh basket and then, went about his daily business as usual. 

That’s the beginning of one of the most bizarre stories you are likely to hear in a long time….

The corporal who gathered the sand did it as a favor to a buddy’s mother who lived in a rural area near Moulton, Alabama. Her name was Vicki Rutherford. It seemed that in her own travels she had started a sand collection. Who knows why. Perhaps she was going to make some of the sand art in distinctive bottles that were all the rage in craft stores at the time. Perhaps she wanted to put some in a locket, or in her cat’s litter box, whatever the reason, Corporal Hershel Robinson, as his name appeared in his official induction papers into the ranks of the U.S. Marine Corps read, was 20 years old at the time. In 1991, he found himself stationed near the Iraq/Saudi Arabia border in the Desert Shield/Storm Conflict. In two days time his unit would be moving up closer to the border. 

The sand in the envelope, just a regular, business size envelope, went on its way along with hundreds of other pieces of mail, love letters, official business, and a few responses to Dear John letters received by the recruits who were broken hearted and feeling ready to see some action if for no other reason to expend some of the pent up frustration over being in a place where they didn’t want to be rather than safe at home.   

Time passed slowly. Back in Lawrence County, Alabama, Vicki Rutherford waited and waited. Still, no sand arrived. Oh, well, there was a war going on over there, it was bound to slow things down some, right? 

Days turned into weeks, which turned into months and finally into years and before you know it, two decades had passed. The sand never arrived. Vicki Rutherford died and was mourned by family and laid to rest. The secret of what she wanted to do with the sand died with her….

Hershel Robinson returned from active duty to civilian life and with it to his more common name, Kevin. 

He never realized that the sand hadn’t reached its destination until last week. Now, follow closely because this gets complicated. 

Kevin and his wife, Rhonda Mitchell Robinson, now live in Moulton. His daughter, Lauryn Robinson, received a strange call from her boyfriend, Austin Littrell, who had coincidently purchased the former home of Vicki Rutherford in Chalybeate. 

His mail carrier dropped off a package last week containing, among the ads for burial insurance and other junk mail, a strange looking package with Lauryn’s dad’s (Kevin) name on the return portion. It looked suspicious. And old…

She called her dad and inquired, “Dad, did you mail something to Austin at his house, in 1991?” (Even though it wasn’t Austin’s house in ’91) 

Kevin, puzzled and cautious, told her to check out the envelope carefully for signs of tampering. There were none. He’d done a great job of securing it back in the Middle East, and wherever this little bundle of mysterious sand had been stashed for the past years it didn’t seem to have been opened. 

Kevin instructed her how to carefully open it and lo and behold there was the gritty grayish brown sand he’d spooned into the little jewelry bags so long ago. He’d completely forgotten about them…

So, where was it all of this time? Kevin says that his only guess is that it was flagged as suspicious at the time. There was, after all, a war going on….somehow it was ‘mislaid’ for three decades before showing up right where it had been intended to be in the first place. 

If not that, then the Mystery of the Saudi Sand continues….. 

The irony will not be lost on the reader. Austin and Lauryn were not even born at the time the package was mailed. What are the odds of Kevin’s daughter, now a grown woman, being in a relationship with the owner of the house where the sand finally found its new home?

Kevin will scatter some of the sand on Vicki Rutherford’s grave and is unsure about what to do with the rest, but will certainly share it with her family. Maybe put some in a special piece of jewelry…

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