Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

On Sunday, while at the fishing derby, I was approached with a story idea. The premise was simple, if there is a world record for four leaf clovers found, and it currently belonged to a 10 year old, it may now belong to St. Regis resident, Laura lee Thompson. Thompson and 3 other people were outside of her sister in law’s store, the Akwesasne Cigarette Depot, and found what they thought to be one, but later turned into 15 four-leaf clovers. Thompson alone found 10 clovers.

So we have the premise, but what of the actual record? I wasn’t able to find anything but references to the original child, 12-year-old John Christian Stokes, or an official confirmation of his record at Guinness World Records. The Guinness Book of World Records website lists no such record held by anyone. However, after finding a few articles that mention Stokes by name and point to a World Record Academy, it appears there are more organizations vetting and certifying world records than the venerable Guinness Book.

Here are 7 of the clovers she found.

The record stands, according to the World Record Academy, that Mr. Stokes, 10 years old on May 20th 2010, found three four-leaf clovers in 10 minutes. That’s impressive, but according to Thompson, she has beat this record by more than triple. So it seems to me that she ought to receive some sort of recognition. Thompson even had proof of her feat; she mounted the clovers on tape and dated them.

I think Thompson should contact both agencies and have them send out the people who certify this sort of thing. One thing is for sure; Thompson is probably the luckiest lady on the Rez.

Fun fact: Hugh Beaver, I am not making this up, then manager of the Guinness Brewery, wanted to know what the fastest bird in Europe was. Figuring that other world records were going unanswered, Beaver eventually released the first Guinness Book of Records, in 1955. It was later renamed to Guinness Book of World Records.

More Clover fun facts can be found here:

http://voices.yahoo.com/25-four-leaf-clovers-facts-may-not-know-6254310.html