Honest people ... and happy ending

The power of positive thinking and a belief in the basic goodness of my fellow man was proven on Monday afternoon when I spent some time in the sunshine reflecting on life at river's edge. I read and took some photos, a fallen log as a back rest. A glorious day in this place we call home.

I gathered up my things and left about 4 p.m., noticing only after I got home that my camera wasn't in my bag ... it must have slipped out unnoticed there on the grass. Even though I have several cameras, that one is a favorite that I've packed around for a decade. It takes wonderful photos, thousands of photos through the years for personal use and for print.

I got back in my car and headed again to Corbin Park on the off-chance that it would still be there by the log. I was crushed when it wasn't. So I reported the loss to the Post Falls Police Department, Officer Brenda Smith taking my call. I also called Penny Linder at the Post Falls Parks Department in case a worker found it.

At 5:30 p.m. Officer Smith called and said I could stop by the police department and pick up my camera. To say I was elated would be an understatement and to the couple who noticed the camera as I was driving out of the park, taking note of my personalized MAIN ST license plates, sincere thanks. Not just for returning my camera but for confirming my faith in people. Honest people who do the right thing rarely make headlines but they should.

Twenty-three years ago yesterday a heartbreaking tragedy took place on the Spokane River in Post Falls. Three years ago I met Bob Pearl and his mother, Donna Sherriff Pfeiffer when they returned for the first time since the 1989 accident. Bob was just 13 and the lone survivor of a boating accident that claimed the lives of his 7-year-old brother, Donald Stahl, his step-grandfather William Pfeiffer and family friend Frank Cordell.

At Q'emiln Park they had launched a new boat and couldn't get the engine started, helplessly drifting toward the floodgates of the dam in the swift current of the spring run-off. The boat hit the dam and flipped over, all aboard tossed into water that was flowing about 20,000 cubic feet per second through the spill gates.

Yesterday at the request of Bob's mother, I revisited the place where so many years ago she lost her young son and father-in-law. Donna lives in Illinois and has only been back to the river once, in 2009.

She asked if I'd photograph the site for her on this anniversary date. It was a beautiful and warm morning this year, wild flowers blooming on the rocky hillsides of the trail, the roar of the water masking the sounds of the swallows darting back and forth ... the powerful water crashing through the canyon below the Third Channel a magnificent sight to behold.

It isn't surprising that three people lost their lives to that unforgiving water, it's amazing that anyone survived it.

I love learning new things and on Monday, thanks to some of my knowledgeable Facebook friends Erin Reasor, Eli Yates, Linda Cook, Jamie Green and Jeanne Helstrom, I now know there's such a thing as a skink. I spotted an odd looking lizard on a rock at Corbin Park and snapped a photo. It didn't take long after I posted the picture on Facebook for people to identify the creature. And just so you'll know, too, Western Skinks escape predators by losing their tail. When attacked, the skink's tail can break off, surprising the enemy, giving the skink time to scurry away. A new tail eventually grows in its place.

Did anyone else sleep right through that incredible storm that passed through Monday night, early Tuesday morning?

Happy Birthday today to Cheryl Burchell, Lori Hess, Patricia Keller, Krystal Arthur, Cathy Biby and Joey Grunden. Sharing April 26 birthdays are Tim Skelton, Doneda Allen, Marilyn Dejarlais, Pat Lippert and Sandy Landberg. On Friday Steve Kane, Tim Atwood and Brittney Blaski are the birthday partiers. Saturday is filled with celebrants - my high school friends and twins Tootie Reynolds and Martin Teall turning the big 6-0, Glorie Ward, Linette Freeman, Caitlin Rielly, Sue Barnard, Barb Forgacs, Corinna Whiting, Star Hart, Larry Locke and Kristina Haakenson. April 29 is a special day for Steve Wilson, Susan O'Neill, Emily LaCharity and Janet Haakenson. Monday will be a fun day for Louise Zimmerman, Luke Griffin, Keith Ekness and Jai Nelson and May Day birthday girls are Susan Harms, Jeri Delange and Diane Duncan.

Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. She was voted Best Local Writer for 2012 by the readers of the North Idaho Business Journal. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri is on the air Mondays and Wednesdays on 1080 ESPN AM (KVNI).