Despite potential $1,900 fine, Seminole High grad returns book about scuba diving after 47 years

SEMINOLE, Fla. - In March 1975, Seminole High junior Barry Colbath checked out a copy of the "Handbook for Hydronauts."

For the next 47 years, the school's library would survive the Vietnam War’s end, nine presidencies, recessions, and even a pandemic, all without a book that taught readers how to scuba dive, by Hank Frey.

That is, until this week, when Colbath returned it, nearly a half a century later.

"It seemed imperative that I needed to bring this book back," Colbath said. 

Library cards show when a book was checked out

Now-sergeant Barry Colbath says his son was cleaning out his bedroom when he came across the dusty old book.

"I said, ‘I recognize that book. I checked that out when I was in high school,’" Colbath recalled. "So my wife got a chuckle out of it, and he said, ‘No way,’ and so I thumbed through the book, showed him how old it was, and decided I’d take it to the school the next morning."

The clerks at the library also got a chuckle out of it. 

Colbath with Principal Jane Lucas 

"They all said they were born the same year I took this book out, in 1975! So that made me feel rather great-grandpa-ish, instead of just grandpa-ish."

And with nearly a half a century of fines racking up at 10 cents a day, he wondered just how much the fine would be. 

"I thought, ‘What is the fine going to be after 47 years?’ Well, they told me recently, it’s over $1,900."

$1,915.75, to be exact. 

"Handbook for Hydronauts"

Principal Jane Lucas says school policy overrides the nearly $2,000 fine.

"The fine ends when it reaches the fine of the book, or the value of the book," she said. 

Which in today’s dollars is about $19. Colbath plans on handing them a $20.

"The takeaway is, don’t be afraid to do what’s right, and that’s what I finally did – did what’s right to bring the book back," he said, proving that it’s never too late to do the right thing.

Lucas says they plan on ordering the newest edition of "Handbook For Hydronauts" for the library, but now, they will again have the 1960s-era copy available, as well.