Capt. Terry Lewis and Leon Tibbetts, who are no longer with us, were both very ingenious.

Many years ago, Terry, a merchant marine, brought home a slew of interesting things from his trips around the world. On one trip, he brought home a truckload of merchandise.

Terry only wanted the merchandise in the box truck, and Leon wanted the truck, so they backed the truck onto Terry's property, jacked it up, unbolted it, and Leon ended up with truck. Leon used the truck for various endeavors for many years. And here still sits the big, white box of Terry's treasures.

After Terry passed on in 2006, his property went up for bid. Getting to know Terry as a neighbor and hearing about his many trips around the world, I was intrigued at what might be left in his house and in that big, white box, which was locked.

I bid on the property, thinking maybe his house might make a good home for my twin daughters (that part of the story didn't pan out), but I won the bid and the fun began.

After finding a lot of old Boothbay Harbor memorabilia, I made my way into the box. There I found rolls upon rolls upon rolls of red ribbon -- a huge amount. The rolls were 1-foot long and about 8 inches wide.

For two or three years, I tried selling the rolls for $15 a roll through advertising in the Uncle Henry's shopper. Only one roll sold.

I also tried to give some of the rolls away to family — nobody wanted it.

Deciding to put the property up for sale, I needed to get rid of this mountain of ribbon.

About a year ago, I decided to give the rolls away for free, trying to avoid having to bury them in a hole somewhere. I started advertising in Uncle Henry's again: "Christmas in April FREE! 1,000-foot rolls of red ribbon."

I managed to get rid of a couple of rolls, here and there. From there, I went to Facebook (Boothbay Harbor Yard Sale Online and Damariscotta Yard Sale Online) and later, an online site, Free For The Taking (Maine). I started receiving some calls from each site.

Then, out of the blue, I received a call from a Jill Morton, who works in the special education department at Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport. We talked about how much of the ribbon I had left (almost all of it!) and she asked how much she could have ("all you want!"). We made a date for her to come down to look over the supply.

When she saw the ribbon-filled box, she got quite excited. With the help of her son and daughter, Isak and Ali, and a friend, Espen, they loaded her vehicle with about 100 rolls of the red ribbon. She told me that with one of the school colors being red, she was going to make pom poms for sporting events, give some of the rolls to the art department, and began excitedly describing other uses for the ribbon.

I had asked her if she could let me know how much ribbon was on a roll, as I had been advertising 1,000-foot rolls. Later on, I found out I was wrong.

This past summer, the inquiries about the ribbon started rolling in and the rolls of ribbon started rolling out.

A young couple who were getting married took about 15 rolls to decorate for their wedding. A woman from Lewiston took about 30 rolls to distribute to local ATV clubs so they could mark their trails. Another couple showed up in two BMWs. I noticed that the woman wouldn't get out of her car. The man said she feared that the rolls contained mouse houses. I never found any.

Nevertheless, the man filled the back seat of his car, saying he wanted the ribbon for his family-owned flower shop, and that a relative was a crafter down in the Kittery area.

One woman took a bunch of rolls to surround her horse pasture. She was going to tassle it to see if it would keep her horses from running off. Not sure how that worked out.

A woman from Skowhegan, after finding out that it was too expensive for her to have one of the rolls mailed to her, eventually sent a relative to pick up a car load of ribbon.

I was mowing the lawn one day when a man on a motorcycle, outfitted with a back truck, stopped by. He told me his wife had sent him and he was able to fit two rolls in the back truck.

One gentleman showed up from a town near the Canadian border and took a car load to use for Christmas wreaths.

During this give away, I didn't realize there were so many kinds of ribbon. One lady asked me what kind and color were the rolls of ribbon. I told her they were "kind of a satin red." She said she wanted 25 rolls, so I piled 25 rolls in the back of the truck and waited for her arrival. I told her I wasn't going to be around that day but that she could pick them up.

When I got home later, the pile was still there. I called her to ask if she made it down. Boy, was she upset with me. She said she came a long way for nothing; that I mislead her.

When I told her about the ribbon, I meant the ribbon color was satin red. She assumed that the ribbon was satin in make, to use for constructing dresses. I apologized, but she hung up on me.

My disappointment didn't end there. I got a call from the Bangor Valor Project, who wanted to take the rest of my rolls of ribbon to Wreaths Across America for their wreaths placed in Arlington National Cemetery.

I got so excited, I started shaking. My ribbon was possibly going to be on the wreaths placed on the graves of all the brave men and women who lost their lives defending our country.

To my disappointment, I found out that Wreaths Across America only use 3-inch felt ribbon with wire for the bows on wreaths.

Over the rest of the summer, rolls were taken here and there and the pile got smaller.

Jill from Camden Hills called again and came down to take another car load. She also updated me on how much ribbon was on each roll. Though each roll was different in size, the larger, full rolls contained about 12,000 feet of ribbon. So much for my estimate of 1,000 feet!

Doing a rough calculation on the estimated 550 rolls of ribbon, with 400 being full rolls, 150 being half rolls, I estimated that the ribbon would stretch over 1,080 miles. That's roughly enough ribbon to reach from Boothbay Harbor to Louisville, Kentucky!

My latest giveaway (yes, there are still some rolls left in the box) involved a woman from Richmond who was moving to New Hampshire next year with her husband to buy a Christmas tree farm. She took 100-plus rolls to use in their new business.

This has been a fun ride, meeting all these people and learning about their various uses for the ribbon. I would like to thank them all for finding a home for "Terry's treasure."