We finished
up the pit and packed up our gear. There are so many rocks on this
hillside, it seems that's what people used for filling the pits when the
time came to fill them. That's why probing from the top is so hard. It
all probes the same, with vision blurring rockiness. The most important
thing for success at construction sites is to check as often as
possible. Daily is best. Things move pretty fast and what is on the
ground today will be gone or crushed tomorrow.
Ladies and
Dudes, I can't WAIT for another season of digging privy pits !!!
What a RUSH
it is to climb into the time capsule, and the pontil pits almost stop my
heart !!!
FCE
Feb. 29th
Leap Day.
Today we were ready for spring !!! I had fresh permissions at three
places. An 1870 and an 1865 timber frame, and an 1830 brick. We started
with the brick. Only the rear 4th of the lot was diggable, as there was
extensive landscaping on the front 3/4ths. I was pretty sure that we
would find something in the back along the alley. We probed a solid 2
foot grid and came up with nothing. We moved on to the 1870 frame house.
This place had a large early carriage house in the back. It was on an
early concrete foundation, meaning it was built near the turn of the
century, and may be over the early pits. We ran another tight grid, and
again, came up empty.
Probing in Harrison is easy, as the original ancient gravel river bed is
always reachable with the probe. In this yard it was 3 feet deep.
Anyplace the probe went in more than 3 feet without hitting the stiff
gravel meant further investigation was needed. We hit just a couple
places, but privies were ruled out in short order as there was a total
lack of layering, debris, or walls.
We moped :(
Down to my last permission, I had to call to make sure this one was
available for immediate excavation. It was not. There was a gathering
going on at this location, meaning we would have to wait until another
day to dig it. Such is the frustration of the urban privy digger.
We walked down the alley with our probes. Every depression caught our
eye. Every yard invited and enticed. After walking a few blocks we came
upon the house my cousin is renting. A nice 1865, right on Broadway. He
has been meaning to ask
permission for us, but had not got around to it. He is my kin so I will
call him a BIG SLACKER !!! He said it would be OK to probe to see if
there was anything worth asking permission for. The rear 3rd of the lot
was under the big "C". We probed everything else and short of a septic
tank, came up with nothing but river bed.
We gabbed and smoked and drank coffee.
We decided to go get some dirt and fill a couple of sinkers from this
past Fall. After filling 10 five gallon buckets with top soil, we topped
off two pits and seeded and strawed them in. We made our plans for
meeting for our presentation for the Harrison Village Historical Society
this Tuesday March 2nd. Talking to folks about privy digging and sharing
our finds is always exciting, and after making 6 presentations so far,
we are really looking forward to talking to our own hometown folks.
Next weekend we will be in Saylor Park on the Ohio River at a nice 1865.
Saylor Park is just upstream from Judge Symmes original settlement, and
was known to be the residence of many very early influential people and
families.
Their pits await us.
Bottles on eBay
March 7th 2004.
We met
in Saylor Park. Saylor park was named after the first mayor, as it was
annexed into Cincinnati in 1879. Before that it was known as Home City.
It's location is on the bank of the Ohio River, about 9 miles downstream
of Cincinnati. The main street used to be named Independence Street. The
scenic views and wide vistas, along with the proximity to the big city,
led many aristocratic families to build fine homes there.
We
were in the city proper, about 2 by 4 blocks in size. One of my
permissions was a corner lot with a very long 2 story saltbox, and the
other was next to it. The backyards of both were mostly open, with the
exception of a small pool and a small shed.
We
started probing along the side of the property. Rod broke out his
dowsing rods, (Sir Dowsing Rod, Duke of Lawnchairshire) and began the
Voodoo. He chanted,
"I aint too purdy,
I aint too fair,
somebody get me
my lawnchair."
An
hour later, we had one single maybe. (Rod had many) We threw down a tarp
and removed a 2 by 2 patch of sod. Three feet deep we hit an ashy layer
with some 1890's glass in it, and at 4 feet it ended. Nottapit.
Fillerin.
On the
corner lot, we came up with zero maybe's. We ran a tight grid and found
nothing even remotely worth a tester. I heard Rod say "food" from over
my shoulder and a minute later he was gone. After putting away our
probes, Mike and I went up the road to "M"
and pulled in as Rod was pulling out and heading towards home. He was
done.
Mike
said he was going to check out a couple of construction sites and I had
to go and do a small touch up on a paintjob and pick up payment.
This
makes 4 intown lots in a row that our probes have missed their mark. The
folly of it stings me to my sinew.
We
will meet again soon Mr. Saylor Park,
and we will find your aristocratic crappers.
Next weekend !!!
More permissions,
more probing,
more making fun of Rod !!!
He's such a SPORT.
March 13th
Today
we were going probing behind a nice 1865 at the corner of Broadway and
Vine Streets.
Because of it's location, we new the lot may be older than what the
county auditors website said it was. When we get downtown like this,
almost all the lots have a woody full-o pontils.
I
arrived about 1/2 hour early and started probing. After about ten
minutes I located a wood lined pit right next to the shed. Mike showed
up and we used his 7 foot probe to reveal a bottom at about 6 and 1/2
feet. There were a couple of crunchy layers maybe halfway down, and then
what felt like a very thin layer at the bottom. We flung out some tarps
and started moving dirt.
At
just 2 feet deep we hit redware pieces and some ironstone. This was a
thin layer with some seeds and a few frags. There was some more fill
under this, and at 4 feet another thin layer. This layer held a broken
amber cordial, a few broken lamp chimneys, and some window pane.
At 6
feet the fill turned into a gravely mix. At 6 1/2 feet a solid gravel
bottom. Looking closely, we saw there was actually a super thin layer of
seeds, about an inch thick, right on the bottom, mixed in with the
gravel. The only shards coming out of this layer was some super thin
window pane. It was so sterile and empty and rocky stiff that I was just
digging through it gingerly with the short shovel. Suddenly the sound of
crunching glass was heard and the bottom half of a pontiled bottle
flipped up into view. It was the base of another one of Harrisons first
bottles, a "Ward's Botanical Linament". I grabbed it up to look at the
break. It was as sick as the rest of it. Shewwweeee !! Not me !!!!!
That
slowed me down a bunch. It was a pain to slowly scratch through the
rocky layer. I did the whole bottom, and nothing else came out but a few
pieces of window pane. As I sat looking at the wall in front of me, I
noticed a panel of glass, about 2 feet down from the top. I pulled it
out to find an iron pontiled ten sided soda, "W. Wilke Mineral Water /
Cin, O." Sadly, it was topless.
We
decided to scratch at the upper 2 layers, as we were still about a foot
in from 2 of the walls. Mike hopped in and started scratching and
hacking. Suddenly he stopped and held up his scratcher. There was an
open pontil square ink impaled and held tight by one of the tines.
Because it had no embossing, it was damage free and in perfect shape.
We dug
at the sides till we hit the walls. A couple of slender op puffs rolled
out and then it was over. We fillederin and threw down some of Scott's
finest and some hay.
Mike
and I started a test hole on a soft spot and Sir rodney, having
forgotten his lawnchair, decided to go next door to the big Presbyterian
Church rummage sale to see if they had one. He came back telling us how
close he came to buying a nice old leather recliner for 10 bucks, just
to use for the dig. He decided to head back to the castle of
lawnchairshire, where the above ground moat is a lovely emerald green
and filled with fancy goldfish, exotic turtles, and many flavors of
interesting algae.
We
finished the test hole with negative results and started probing again.
In the center of the yard was a small raised area. It was like a
depression, only backwards. I walked over to it and stabbed it square in
the face. I almost fell on my own face. Mike was there in an instant to
poke in Mr. Long Probe. Mr. Long Probe sang his sweet song of snap,
crackle and pop. We probed up solid walls and marked out a nice 4 by 5
pit. We decided to dig a tester into one of the corners to make sure the
pit walls were stone, and not concrete. At a foot down we found a nice
stone corner. We stuck the 7 foot probe into the 1 foot hole and at 8
feet still could not feel the bottom.
It was
4:30 and we knew this one would go well into the night so we decided to
bail out and wait for next weekend. Since we were finding op stuff in
the top 2 feet of the pit beside it, we are excited that this pit will
begin where the first left off.
Thank
You to my 6th grade Teacher for allowing us to dig.
I guess I wasn't as rotten as I tried to be.
Next
weekend, we rake in the hoard !!!
Eddie Brater lll
March 21st 2004
Today we returned to dig the stone liner we probed up
last weekend. I got there first and probed the walls. I wanted to get
the tarps and the sod right on the mark to make for a clean dig. Rod and
Mike showed up and we were tossing dirt. This was a pretty big pit at 5
by 5 feet. We all three had room to work down to a couple of feet, then
2 at a time till we got down to 4 feet deep. It was easy sailing. No
bricks or rocks, and just little roots.
At about 5 feet we found some crown top beers and a
few small slicks. We halved the pit down another few feet, looking for
some age.
Rod was sifting the use and found a few toothbrushes
and a few reed pipes.
He was using my coolest ever homemade sifter, which is just a plastic
pop crate with rabbit wire stomped into the bottom of it. Works
superbly.
Rod hauls and dumps.
At 7 feet I found a broken cobalt target ball with a
star embossed on it.
A local hutch popped out. Kunz and Ritzmann /
Lawrenceburg IN.
Somebody threw out a Wicherts food bottle.
We took the pit down to 5 feet and then halved it 5
more to the bottom. At ten feet deep we hit the gravel bottom and found
90's slicks, both meds and 1/2 pint clear flasks. Where was our age ???
The walls had some older sick aqua shards and pieces of feather edge and
goudy dutch. This pit had been dipped. We still had a 4th of the dirt to
remove and were salty about the puny age on the bottom. Then right in
the middle I hit a patch of older stuff and pulled out a small Lyons
powder bottle and a ribbed pepper sauce. Then a six sided bottle with
lots of embossing rolled out of the fluff. I thought it was a Wistars
but it turned out to be an open pontil "Rowand's / Tonic / Mixture / or
Vegetable / Febrifuge / Philida". Neat !!!
Now we HAD to take out the rest of the dirt. Mike
pulled out the shards of a Congress Mineral Water. He undercut our ledge
and got most of the bottom cleared before it slid. He fluffed through
the slide and we pulled another 20 buckets and that's all she wrote.
We got some Lydia Pinkums and some Ayers Cherrys and
this and that. It was Spring and we were rakin' through glass and takin'
home some bottles so life is good. The smell of dirt, the sore muscles,
the tinkle of glass through my scratcher. Oh Yea !!!
Rod had a brand spanking new lawn chair. It was one of
those fancy new sling type, pop up jobs. He was very proud of it and
smiled grandly while unveiling it. He set the front 2 legs about 3
inches from the edge of the hole and occasionally kicked dirt into the
pit and down my shirt.
Ahhh...Just like old times.
Now I'm home Mommy.
Now I'm home.
May 8th. 2004
My
permission today was a home owned by the friendly neighborhood
undertaker, who is also a relation of mine. He is also the owner by
default of a local legend and piece of rare and obscure history. This
item is "The Wamsley Mad Stone". It is thought to have been taken as a
piece from the more well known "Burlington" (Kentucky) Mad Stone. A mad
stone is a small quartz rock believed to have magic healing powers.
These stones were sometimes given to early white settlers by Indian
Medicine Men. The purpose of them was to cure mad dog and snake bites.
The procedure was to boil the stone in milk, then place it onto the
afflicted person at the site of the bite. The stone would then "cling"
to the person and would not fall off until it cooled. The process was
repeated a few times and the cure was done. The Wamsley Mad Stone was
never known to fail, and people would travel great distances in order to
be cured by it.
Unfortunately for us (and more so for the grieving family) there was a
funeral today. We agreed with the Undertaker that a large hole being dug
in the funeral home yard might not present itself too appropriately to
the crowd of mourners.
Indiana
Lawn Chair had a permission on the Indiana Lawn Chair side of town, so
we decided to meet there. Rod was running late so Mike and I decided to
start probing. We checked out the back property line and also the hidden
side of the back yard where it bordered the railroad tracks. We hit
glass in one spot just 2 feet down and did a test hole and found 1970 in
a big way. There was nothing under it so we fillderin.
"Mike the
thorough" wanted to run a grid. "Eddie the spastic" wanted to keep
running around the yard stabbing and jabbing at sink holes and places
with funny looking grass. Just as I was getting ready to cave in and
conform to a more systematic approach, I fell on my knuckles. Mike,
having already responded about 40 times with the long probe to "hey
check this spot out", came trudging over and popped through glass and
more glass at 6 feet. This pit was in an odd location, and would have
been missed by our grid.
SPAZZES
UNITE !!!
The sod was
nice in this spot so we marked the woodies walls and cut it precisely.
We moved it onto a tarp and then completely surrounded the pit with more
tarps. We removed about a foot of dirt and from over my shoulder came,
"Just
WHAT do you think youra DOIN" ???
"Oh we're
digging up the old privy pit", I said.
"Well
the owner IS NOT gonna be happy about THAT", he said.
"Well the
owner MIGHT be happy about it because he just told us we could do it", I
retorted.
The tenants
irateness was replaced by a frowning indifference and he stomped back
into the house. Shewwweee. He came back out later and was all calmed
down and showed a bit of interest. He was the care taker and grass mower
and he was looking out for the property. That's cool. He just didn't
know. And we knew we had to do an expert restore-o so he would have no
gripe when it was done.
There was
little change in the fill down to about 5 feet, then a foot of ash and
then all glass. Mike handed up two cobalt squat soda tops and then found
the bases. They were both "I. Suttohn / Cincinnati". He then found an
intact B. Bick and two Best and Lothes Mineral waters, aqua smooth base
squatties. He also found a neat doll head in perfect shape. It has
blonde hair and a hair net. Before switching mojo, he handed up a yellow
ware fruit jar
On my turn
I found a yellow ware chamber pot and a red ware bowl. I also found an
Osgoods India Chalaguea. There were 5 tops of broken cobalt target balls
and three Union wax sealer tops in a bright green.
We filled
in the hole and packed it well, and replaced the sod. It Looked great
and was ready for mowing. Mike located another pit behind the one we
dug. It is very subtle and we felt no glass, but sometimes them are the
good ones.
Next
weekend we may just tear into it.
The weekend
of the 22nd we have a big invite to go check out an early Ohio River
tavern and hotel.
ROAD TRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP !!!
May 22nd and 23rd, 2004
I got to
talking with a feller Named Stan who was mighty interested in digging
some privy pit's down in his neck of the woods. His woods were in the
Hoosier Hills, centered around Troy, Indiana.
We chatted
back and forth by e-mail and he had some extraordinary permissions. Now
usually, I don't travel much to dig. Cincinnati has just about all the
stuff dreams are made of. But some of Stans permissions, especially one,
was enough to entice me downstream.
The
Nester House
Riverplace (The Old Nester House) is located on Water Street, the only
street that fronts the Ohio River in Troy, IN. Completed by John G.
Heinzle in 1863, the old native sandstone block building was first used
as a grocery store with residence on the second floor. After Heinzle's
death in 1871, his widow, Elizabeth, married Jacob Nester who expanded
services at the hotel by adding length to the original 32' x 36'
structure making it 32' x 68' on the ground floor and 32' x 58' on the
second and third levels.
The old section's first floor was then a hotel lobby, bar, merchant
showroom and elegant dining room. The extension served as kitchen,
storage and servants' area. The second floor had eight instead of five
rooms, at least two of which the Nesters used as living quarters. The
attic provided sleeping space for single men, mainly local miners.
Riverplace has had several owners and several names. The owners were
John G. Heinzle (1860), Elizabeth Heinzle (1871), Jacob Nester (1879),
Issac Dunn (1895), Peter Backer (1900), Francis Dunn (1902), Joseph
Schwartz (1911), Joseph and Margaret Leingang (1913), Francis Xavier
Bumm (1920), John I. Bumm (1954), Joseph W. Leingang (1959) William Cole
(1967), and now James and Joyce Efinger (September 1988).
The hotel has been known as: The Heinzel Family Grocery, Heinzle Hotel,
Bauer Hotel (when rented to John Bauer by his sister, Elizabeth
Heinzle), Union Hotel, Old and New Union Hotel, Nester House, Riverfront
Hotel, and now Riverplace. It is the intention of the Efingers to
preserve both the building and its history.
A
roofed lattice pavilion on the east lawn provided a place for outdoor
dancing during its grandest times. The existing brick wash house
replaced the train platform at the northeast edge of the lot sometime
during that period.
It is said that the basement, long since filled in, was a link in the
Underground Railroad System having a tunnel through which slaves could
escape southern masters. A section of that tunnel was uncovered in 1991.
The 21" thick walls and the mortise and tendon jointed poplar studs are
as secure today as when Riverplace was completed in 1863.
The building was in near ruins when purchased by James Efinger. He and
his wife have done a remarkable job in bringing it back to life. They
give tours to school children and anyone else who is interested. Jim has
the first floor level filled with pictures and artifacts from the
buildings past, and upstairs where he and his wife live, his wife has
artfully decorated in a fashion that truly charms the senses. Below is a
picture of The Nester House and the owner, Jim Efinger.
Below, me
and Jim.
Below, me, Rod, and Stan.
Below, a nice view of the mighty Ohio River from the 2nd floor balcony.
Yea, nuff
said. You can see why I wanted to dig here. Lots of history. So we met
Stan here. He had provided me with the coordinates for my GPS and
finding it was simple-pie. Stan is a pleasant and very nice guy. He is
soft spoken and has a gentleness about him that didn't get in the way of
him getting dirty and right into the work at hand. He has been a metal
detectorist and bottle digger for some time, but had never experienced
the thrill of privy digging, or of finding the old pontilled stuff. Stan
introduced us to the owner, Jim, and Jim gave us the grand tour. Jim is
also a super nice fellow. Maybe it's the easy and relaxed atmosphere
that makes the folks here so pleasant. It must have started rubbing off,
as even Rod was more well mannered than usual. Lol.
We wound
up in back where Jim showed us an extension to an outbuilding that
served in the past as a mens and womens privy. Probing just outside this
building a wood lined pit was located. We tarped it off and went to
work. The shards were promising with age, but the promise wore thin when
we hit bottom and cleaned it out without anything whole. We probed a bit
more and found another pit on the far side of the property.
Unfortunately it was also just off the property. Stan knew the owner and
said he would call her that night to try to get permission to dig it. As
coincidence would have it, this property was also used for a hotel in
bygone days.
Stan said
he had an 1840's lot where an early store had once stood. We packed up
and headed out.
This place
was in the country. There was a pond there that looked as if it might
hold bass big enough to drag a person in off the bank. We probed any
likely looking sinkers, and we stabbed at the rear yard line. We found a
low spot surrounded by bricks and broke glass with the probe at about 3
feet. We opened it up to find a rather smallish brick lined round
structure. There was no mortar between or latheing on the bricks. It was
chunked full of big sandstone slabs. Progress was slow. The property
owner stopped by and told us we were digging in the old well. We got
down to 5 feet or so and the age of the shards was pretty new. We sunk
the 7 foot probe to the handle. Figuring this thing might be 40 feet
deep or more, and that it was probably filled in recently, we decided to
bail out and fillerin.
Below,
Stan and Mike at the brick well.
Stans next
move was to a very old lot in a small town down the road. It was so old
it almost made me cry when I saw it. Like Stan told us, it was like
stepping back in time.
At the
place where we were going to dig, there were four depressions in the
back yard along the rear property line. They all probed with glass. Mike
located a pit in the very corner with no depression at all, so we
decided to crack this one open.
Below,
Stan digs.
The fill
was pretty consistent down to about 4 feet. We found a slight change in
the fill with some ash and then some shards started coming out. It was a
mixed bag, as some were near pontil age hinge mold and some were barely
blown. We took the pit down to 6 feet and then had to start bailing
water. At 8 feet we still had not hit any kind of glass layer or seeds
so Mike stuck in the long probe. SMACK, all the way to the handle. We
probed outwards with the short probe and found that we had estimated the
walls closely on three sides, but the fourth side went under the chain
link fence and into the neighbors yard by about 3 or 4 feet. OUCH.
It was
getting late so we decided to head to the hotel and return in the
morning. We covered the pit with timbers and peeled out.
At the
hotel, we cranked up the air onto the "frigid" setting, caught a shower
and ate some food. I watched a boxer named Mayweather put a technical
stomping on his opponent, and fell asleep with visions of pontils
dancing in my head.
With a
fresh start, we determined the deep wet woody with no layer would be a
time sucker. I located another woody in the opposite corner of the yard.
This also had no depression. (Note, 4 depressions, all pits, and the two
oldest pits had no depression) It was also shallow, with the bottom
probing at 6 feet, and with a healthy foot deep layer of glass on the
bottom. We filled in the first pit and cracked open the second.
This pit
had good sign early, with a yellow ware chamber pot popping out at just
3 feet deep. Rod was in the pit as we reached the 5 foot level and he
cornered a bottle. He handed up a Simmons Liver regulator in perfect
shape. He also handed up a broken hamburger tropfen and a thompsons eye
water. Then he announced that he had a large bottle in the wall. It took
awhile but he finally got it free and handed up a big crude Dutch
Mallet.
Below, Stan holds his first dug pontiled embossed
bottle. This one has to go on Stans shelf.
Stan the
man was next into the pit and after some scratching and fluffing, held
up a nice pontilled liniment bottle. It was his first ever whole
pontilled find. He also found a large John Bull Extract of Sarsaparilla,
with a crack in it. This pit bottomed out at 6 feet, and we fillderin.
After
making restoration Stan said that he had obtained permission to dig the
pit n the property next to the Nester House. Back we went.
This pit
was also a 6 foot woody. We cracked it open and within a few minutes
started finding shards. They were ugly. Clear, machine made, yuck !!!
Our hole
was rather small and we took it to 5 feet. The last thing up was a
machine made whiskey flask, and some older marbles, including a brown
bennington. We had to head back upstream and Stan said he would probably
continue digging it, just to see what happened.
We said
our good-byes and left Stan with an open invitation to come up and dig
any time he wanted. We had a great time and dug some neat stuff. Thanks
again to Stan for inviting us and for sharing his killer spots with us.
And thanks to Jim Efinger for his hospitality and and kindness.
Next
weekend, an 1850 on Broadway should keep us excited and busy.
Seeya soon
!!!
May
29th, 2004
Today
Mike and I decided to go check out some construction sites. The first
place we visited had some circular depressions in the blacktop. We
slam-probed through them and thought they might be cisterns. We went to
check out another place where they were tearing down an overpass.
This
place had lots of dirt moved around. Before long we noticed a dark area
in a high bank. A little scratching yielded bone and ash and seeds.
Above the use layer was about 4 feet of rock and clay. We had to move it
to dig safely. An hour later we were back into the layer.
It
was mainly slim pickins and not very old, maybe 1890's. Mike cornered a
couple of local Cincy pharmacies, one being "The Pan Handler" pharmacy.
We also threw out an old tarnished disk that turned out to be an 1875
seated Liberty half dollar. Kewl.
We
left some of the contents hanging on the wall and hit bottom. We started
tapping at the hanging wall and in a minute it fell and revealed a nice
cobalt diamond lattice poison. I had to snatch it up quick as the rest
of the wall fell in about a minute later. I let it pose for the pic, all
the time thinking it might get crushed if I wasn't fast enough.
On
Monday, Memorial day proper, we are going into a downright scary
neighborhood to check out an exposed brickliner with hunks of yellow
ware poking out of it. Hard to dig in kevlar. Seeya soon, I hope...
June 12th 2004
Hold
on, back up.
May 31st 2004
Mike
and I met and headed over to Bad Bad Leroy Brown's neighborhood. (He has
a custom Continental you know, and an Eldorado too.) The neighborhood
was still sleeping off so we seemed to be safe, for the time being.
We
hopped down into the soupy, goo filled foundation hole. In the side was
a brick cistern. We hacked at it awhile. The bottom probed to be about 5
feet deep. We mole holed down to 4 and found little sign of age, mostly
crown tops.
On
the other side of the cut was a brick lined privy. This poor dude had
been assaulted by mother nature, and lots of the wall had caved in on
top of his forms.
We
pulled the bricks down and dug into the fill at the bottom, hoping to
hit a layer. It turned out to be all fill. We stuck a probe in and down
and got no change. This neighborhood is famous for deep pits with tall
fills and thick caps. We figured if we pulled the fill out the side and
then dug down to the goodies we would further mess up this guys world.
And if he wheeled up while we were doing it, he might mess up ours. We
decided to bail out and check back after the basement walls were poured,
where we could then help him with the backfill, no charge.
June 12th 2004
Indiana was not answering his phone, and had his machine turned off. I
hollered at him by e-mail, and then Mike and I met in Harrison to probe
at a long standing permission on Broadway. Mike guessed right and we
found a pit right against the back ally. It was a woody, and only 6 feet
deep.
There were storms approaching rapidly from the southwest and we had to
dig fast. There was lots of old sign popping up like banded yellow ware,
feather edge, and goudy dutch. At 3 feet was a thin layer with only
broken stuff, mostly ceramics, and hardly any bottle glass. Under this
layer was about a foot.5 of dirt, and then another thin layer on the
gravel bottom. Mike handed up an open pontiled aqua umbrella ink. Sadly,
it was the only bottle in the pit.
We
got it filled back in and re-sodded just as the rain came. We decided we
would try to get ahold of Rod to dig tomorrow, at one of his
permissions, another 6 foot woody.
June 13th 2004
After talking to Rod and getting a promise on a call back, he abruptly
peeled out from his house to go watch "The Bangers" play. He was so
excited he forgot to call me back. Turkey !!!
The singer is Ollie, our buddy and local Harrison Press
Newspaper editor and opinion columnist. They are actually really good,
and can be seen on moonless nights at the "Dew Drop Inn" on Harrison
Avenue in downtown Bluejay Ohio.
What they really need is a cool web page !!!
Check out their CD,
and Listen to
"My Heart is the Bums on the Street", song #2.
July 3rd 2004.
Today I had a
fresh permission to probe in Harrison. Mike met me around 8 and we
rolled on down into the old part of town. This place was on a corner,
and was a large 2 family 1880's place. It's nice to dig these "newer"
places as we get much more stuff from the time period, as opposed to the
40's and 50's pits. We got out and walked around the biggest Oak tree in
town. It is a MONSTER. A slice from this tree would seat a party of 12.
Mike almost got lost on his way around it and showed up a few minutes
later winded and sun burnt. My recollections DO exaggerate, but it is a
BIG TREE !!!
We were hoping the
pit wasn't right next to this tree, as it's roots were like Volkswagens.
We probed across the back line. We noticed the house to the rear was a
newer brick ranch. We realized how short the back yard was. We realized
the pit was probably under the ranch. 30 minutes of probing the back
yard all but confirmed the worst.
This was my only
permission. Rod has a couple, but he's Amish now, and we can't hardly
get him to dig. He is IndianaRiverMan and his lawn chair has been seen
fully occupied as of late, moving downstream the mighty Whitewater
River, wedged into a canoe. He has acquired a summering place on this
rivers banks where he whiles away the hours in his portable aluminum
chair, watching butterflies make lazy, floppy loops, and delighting in
spotting the spotted gar poking their noses up out of the water.
Mike and I on the
other hand, had no time for such soul calming, and with teeth clenched
in determination decided to
GO DIG RODS PERMISSIONS WITHOUT HIM !!!! BAhaha !!!
But that wouldn't
be right, so...we decided to cruise down and check the construction
sites in the big city.
Site 1 had a ton
of glass mixed in with the grading. Most of it was post 1900 but every
here and there was an open pontil base or a rolled lip, thrown in just
to keep us looking. No pits were found by probing dark, ashy, or wet
spots, which is many times the only indicative sign at a graded site.
Site
B, I mean 2, had been dug on by the workers since our last visit, but
not in the right spots. The ton of mucky rock we threw out of a pit onto
the pathway had been neatly scooped with a single swipe into a low area
next to it. Thanks fellers.
Site 3 was a new
site right in downtown. It had a meticulously constructed 8 foot chain
link fence around it with no way to get through or under it. It was over
it, or nothin. There were lots of folks on the sidewalk all around it.
We walked all around it looking in for anything that might catch our
eye, or for a break in the fencing. It gave no breaks, but we didn't see
much inside either. It was basically a 15 foot deep hole the size of a
half block, so we were looking for the ashy bottoms of some pits on the
floor or a nice ashy or black streak in the walls.
We shook our fists
at the sky and peeled out for home.
July 10th
IndianaAmishRod
decided he wanted to dig today, so we met at one of his permissions.
This place was an 1860 and had a fairly open back yard. We probed the
likely looking areas, the ran a grid over the entire back yard. An hour
later we were empty. There is a large roll-off dumpster on the back
corner. We shook our fists at the dumpster, 3 stooges like, and sped off
towards the next permission.
This place was
quickly re-permissed with a phone call. We had a spot that was low, and
mike thought he broke glass at 6 feet. We opened it up to find a pvc
drain pipe. Yuck, no good.
This place we had
dug at before, and Mike thought he had a woody behind the stony we dug.
It's been mighty dry for the last 2 or 3 weeks and if this thing was a
pit, we couldn't tell. We poked it to death from every angle, never
hitting any glass, and never feeling any layers. Just a slightly softer
push and a smoothness down to gravel at 7 feet.
The last place was
where we dug a tester into the corner and found some sign down to 4 feet
and filled it in. The thing, whatever it is, probes to go halfway onto
the neighbors property. The guy who lived here told us the folks next
door had moved out, and told us a hundred reasons why it would be OK to
just dig over there. We went and probed and I found a pit in short
order. We went back over to the guys house and listened to him tell us
some more why we could just dig it if we wanted, bolstering our courage
as we took it all in with open ears. Then, just as we could stand no
more and were grabbing up tools to go dig it, some people
showed up to mow the grass and
the guy said we better not dig it now, and we better not go ask them for
permission either. He went over and talked to them and told them quite
loudly if they didn't take their ladder home with them he was going to
steal it. We didn't know WHAT to make out of all of it so we split.
Safe, not sorry.
Rod had enough,
and split for his love shack. Mike and I decided to go to Lwrenceburg
and check out a construction site behind the old river row of houses.
There should be no better pits than the ones behind these places. It was
the first block up from the public landing. We checked it good, but it
was devoid of any sign. We stabbed and jabbed but most of the lot had
already been filled.
The sign
says it all.
So folks,
we been trying. Persistence pays in this sport,
and we aim to persist !!!
T
Sunday August 1st, 2004.
Fluffing the tinkle.
On Friday
evening, I was out riding my dual sport
through the alleys of Harrison.
When a
depression
caught my eye.
I guess I had
always missed this one because it was in a funny place. Not HAHA funny,
but weird funny. It was beside a modular slab home, but the slab home
was in the back yard of a nice 1870's place. I went back in the company
van to stab it with a probe. I got brick at 3 and then 4 feet.
Sumpdin was up.
Mike met me
at
on Sunday morning and we headed
on down to partake in the services of the church of privydiggerology.
This pit was preaching 1950 in a big way. We test holed down to the
bottom at 4 feet and found us some miracle whip jars.
Fillerin !!!
We were
missing Sir Rodney, Duke of Lawnchairshire, and any and all of his
permissions, contrived or otherwise. He and his family are vacationing
in Jellystone Park Kentucky, home of Yogi Bear and sandwich basket
thievery.
So we had
fired our only round and it had turned out to be a blank. I had Mike
follow me to 4 different locations in town. I knocked a couple of doors
where we had dug in the past to see if we could probe for any additional
pits. No one seemed to be home. I became frustrated and determined to at
least be told "NO" before it was all over. So I said to Mike, I says,
"You remember that big hoity toity 1830's brick in West Harrison with
the nice yard ?" And he says, "Yea, vaguely". And then I says, "Yea,...
foller me".
So after a
knock and a gab, I had permission to dig, and an exterior painting
estimate to give.
The owner
showed us where a depression was that he said he had to constantly fill.
We probed it and it was soft and crunchy. We decided to probe around a
little more and try to find something less obvious. Nothing turned up,
so we went back to the depression and probed for walls. We found one
wall at the side of the depression but in the other 3 directions there
was nothing for 8 feet !!! More than likely a filled in cellar hole, but
we cut sod and started a test hole to see what age it was filled with.
Just a foot
deep we found an amber quart blob Christian Moerlien and a nice amber
arrow Cincy coke. We mole holed down to 5 feet and found no other glass,
just bricks out the wazoo and chunks of plaster. We took out the sides a
little more at the 1 foot level but didn't see any bottles. Since this
thing was probably a monster barn cellar and since we didn't think the
owner wanted an ongoing bottle mine in his back yard, we fillderin.
We probed for
another hour in the sweltering heat and humidity. Nuthin !!!! I was
thinking that the filling in of the cellar hole in 1900 or so could have
messed with any pits that were there. Just before we gave up, Mike
pounded the long probe into a slight depression in the far side yard and
broke glass at 6 feet. Here we go.
This pit
started off soft, and at 3 feet had a 10 inch ash layer. Under the ash
the fill became very stiff. The fill was sterile and showing us nothing
to get an idea of age with. We had to incorporate the assistance of
Mikes buddy, Spuddy, the chisel tipped spud bar. He made short work of
the stubborn fill and it came out in hunks. Finally at 6 feet we hit
seeds and shards. We took us a break around 4:30 or a little before, and
walked some of the nearby alleys, looking for depressions and such. Then
it was back to the dig !!!
Clear glass,
yuck. Then some slick druggists. At least they were blown. Lots of Cincy
blob beers, all broken of course, started popping out. We found 5 Lydia
pinkums and three Dr. Pierces favorite prescriptions, an A. trask
magnetic ointment, and one lonely unembossed aqua smooth base squat
soda. We cleaned it out to the corners and the show was over. Not a
great haul, but it sure was fun to fluff through the tinkle again.
We gave the
homeowner all of the bottles except for the amber coke. He was tickled.
He said we could come back and look for the older pits anytime. Come to
think of it, we were so pooped we didn't even probe around this pit
before we left. Hmmmm.
August 22nd
Oh boy I was worked up and ready for a good dig !!!
Work has me consumed and I hardly have time to play. Today we were going
probing in the back yard of a small 1865 place in downtown, hometown,
USA.
I was at our usual rendezvous location and the meeting
time came and went. A few minutes later my digital communication device
sounded off and the display revealed Mikes home number. He informed me
that the pesky intermittent problem was back, and his truck would not
start. He said it would heal after a little while and then he would come
straight on over to the dig.
I met Rod at the dig. I knocked on the door. Nuthin.
The homeowner knew to expect me around 9 am on Sunday.
It was 9:30. We decided to just go ahead and start probing, but, the
yard was surrounded by a privacy fence with locks on the gates.
We hung out and gabbed. We went next door to a friends
house and BS'ed some more. Around 10:30 I went and had another knock on
the door. Nuthin again. I decided we would go to the other side of town
where Mike and I had dug a couple weeks before to try to probe up
another pit. When we got there, the owner informed us he was having a
wedding reception at noon. I told him the bride was welcome to join in
but he thought it was a bad idea.
I called Mike and he said he was preparing to try to
start his truck again, and that he thought enough time had passed for it
to heal. Rod said "Screw you guys, Im goin home", in his
familiar Cartmen-ish manner, and peeled out. Actually I think he was
going fishing at his hillbilly second home of a river camp. Ahhh...I can
remember when his passion for the dig drove his ambition for the quest.
Them were the days. I told him to call me later on and I would torment
him with news of all the cool and killer stuff we would surely find in
his absence.
Mike showed up about 40 minutes later and we went back
to the permission where I knocked smartly on the door. This time the
door opened to reveal a sleepy eyed chick with tousled hair and a small
child attached to one leg. She said she would go around and unlock the
gate, and we were innit.
Before I jump on the probe I like to "read the land"
and it usually pays off, like it did this time. The first place I stuck
in the steel I had a pit. It was a woody, and probed to more than 7
feet. We opened it up and started flinging dirt.
The sign was mixed but mostly looked good with some
aqua frags and chunks of salt glaze. The fill was easy digging down to
about 3 feet, where it stiffened up considerably and necessitated the
incorporation of spuddy buddy, the chisel tipped spud bar. As usual, he
made short work of the next two feet of compacted fill dirt. Under this
was an ashy layer and more aqua shards started popping out.
At about 7 feet was the top of a foot thick layer,
resting on the bottom. It was thick with glass but it was mostly broken.
We got a few unembossed coffin flasks and some slick meds. Mike tossed
out a Mellon food jar, a cracked kilmers, and a half gallon aqua masons
"N" 1858 fruit jar, with a big crack in it. A Dandy little half pint
aqua double eagle flask was carefully extracted. It came out in two
pieces with a big piece missing. It had a crude little hand tooled top,
and was streaked with olive yellow striations.
There is another pit behind the one we dug. This pit
is behind the privacy fence, on the grounds of the Harrison Elementary
School. Actually, it's directly under the swingset on the playground.
I'm thinking no-one would mind a big hole encircled with broken glass on
the school playground. Maybe the 6th graders would like to participate
in an actual historical archaeological dig. I'll have to drag a hook by
the school board and see if I get any nibbles.
We sure have dug some skunkers lately. We are over due
for some decent finds.
Patience Glasshopper.
September 19th, 2004.
Today
we were going a-probing at an 1870 farm house in Shandon Ohio. My
company had just finished painting the exterior lap board siding and
trim. I got the go-ahead when I picked up payment for the job.
Payday
and permission !!! Nuthin finer !!!
But,
it WAS a farm so we had our reservations concerning locating the pit(s).
While painting, my breaks were spent walking the back yard and reading
the land. I had four very probable places located by eye alone that I
was just sure were pits.
We
arrived and, with brother Mikey in tow to metal detect, promptly filled
their driveway with 4 vehicles. We said our Howdies and started poking
holes in the yard. My four very probable places were methodically
scratched off the list, leaving me and the Pirate to go searching and
stabbing at less obvious spots.
An
hour later we took a fiver and smoked one of those brain refreshing
cigarettes. Mmmm Mmmm good.
While
brother Mike was out in the front yard detecting and diggin up wheaties,
partner Mike was bending over in the back yard to pick up a big coin
laying on top of the ground. It was a Cincinnati Fall Festival brass
token, dated 1906.
We
stabbed and we jabbed. We long probed every short probe hole. We
re-checked slightly suspicious feeling spots. Nothing felt even worthy
enough of a test hole.
How many privies could a privy digger dig if a privy digger
could dig privies ?????
He wont dig many if he can't find any in the country cause they're all
in the cities !!!
Ahem...
so then...
I have two fresh permissions IN TOWN just waiting to be
plucked clean from their burden. They are ripened as to bursting. It's
been a bad year for extra time round these here parts. Lots of working
overtime and house doctoring. Lots of weekend projects. My overloaded
honey-do list is drawing to a close, and my privy parole is imminent.
October
24th, 2004.
I Finally got out of
the house to do a little digging this weekend. Mike and I met at our new
meeting place. Our new meeting place is WAY cooler than stupid Arbys. We
now meet at Big Lots, where the parking lot is large and lends itself
well to the occasional loud mouthed excitement that privy digging can
sometimes inspire.
Today's dig is on the
downtown Avenue, and is owned by Shirley, who let us dig 5 pits on the
two lots her house occupies. This house and lot sets next door, and
although the back of the lot is covered up with a more recently
constructed garage, we thought we should give it a try, none the less.
I walked over to an
obvious depression and gave it a jab. Kinda crunchy, but shallow at 4
feet. Another depression up close to the back of the house accepted the
entire length of the short probe, and then the entire length of the 7
footer. We threw down tarps and started cutting sod.
The pit was a woody
and was about 4 by 6 feet. We took half of that down to five feet, and
then mole holed down, looking for sign. We got to the bottom without so
much as a single seed. The sign was there, in the form of bricks and
some ash, but no shards were encountered. We mole holed to the bottom
near the center of the pit, and again, found discouragement el Grande.
No good, fillerin !!!
We grid probed the
entire back yard, right up to the rear addition. The only spot that gave
any clues was the first depression I probed, so we opened her up. This
fill held some shards. Red ware, ironstone, and some thin window pane
drove us onward and downward. At 4 feet we hit the old gravel riverbed.
The pit was devoid of layering and appeared to be all fill, with a few
shards mixed in. We pulled out an open pontilled base of an aqua fruit
jar. We cleaned the pit out to the corners, and the show was over.
We believe both of
these pits were dipped clean and refilled. The other pits, if there are
any, are under the garage that sets on the hidden side of the back of
the lot. We checked to see if it had a dirt floor. It did not. Poop !!!
Mike has a few
permissions just north of downtown Cincy we are going after next
weekend, and there is some construction sites downtown that are begging
for a guy with a scratcher to walk through. Fall digging is great.
November 13th
2004.
Today
we had a permission to probe a lot in Cleves, Ohio. Cleves is named
after Judge John Cleves Symmes 1742-1814, who
served as a judge
of the Territorial Court from 1788 until
Ohio became a
state in
1803. He was
responsible for the Symmes purchase, also known as the Miami purchase,
of 330,000 acres. He was the Father in-law of William Henry Harrison.
Cleves is situated on the Great Miami river, about a mile before it
empties into the Ohio River. Originally, the town of North Bend, Ohio,
was chosen by Symmes to become the great queen city of the west. North
Bend sets right next to Cleves. The present site of Cincinnati was
chosen over that of North Bend, as Ft. Washington had already been
established and offered settlers better protection from the hostile
Indians. William Henry Harrison also lived in North Bend, and campaigned
from his farm there during his run for the presidency. His campaign
committee reportedly gave out some historical flasks with the cider
barrel and log cabin motif, as well as the green cabin shaped North Bend
/ Tippecanoe flasks.
A
couple of weeks ago I was out cruising on my
,
slowly rolling through the alleys of the early town, and a nice square
depression caught my eye. I had a chat with a guy hanging around his
place and he told me who owned the property. Later, from the
Privydigger.com control center, I steadied my nerves and made the call
and let the spiel fly. The owner was a cheerful fellow and was tickled
by the absurdness of my pursuit. He said, "just go right ahead", and I
was officially permissed.
Mike
and I met at the dig and I showed him the square depression. It had two
of the stone walls visible. We probed it and sunk the 7 footer through
some layering. We probed all around it but found no other pits in the
immediate area. We layed down some tarps and away we went.
The
fill was uuuugly, with new plastic junk all the way down to about 4
feet. At 5 feet was a thin layer of clay, maybe 8 inches thick, then
some ash and more fill. Finally at 6 feet we hit a change and started
finding more shards and seeds. At 6.5 feet was all seeds and stuff
started popping out.
Mike
first cornered a hutch and an amber blob beer.
The
hutch was a Cincinnati picture type, David Engel, with a horseshoe on
it. The blob beer was an amber quart embossed Gambrinus Stock Co.
Bottled Beer, and had the picture of the King on it.
Mike
handed up a broken milk that said, "Page's Kleen Maid", with a picture
of a lady in a dress holding a milk pail. Too bad the top was missing.
We also found a neat local hutch embossed, "Kunz and Ritzmann /
Lawrenceburg Indiana. This is a cool local hutch, and most local folks
have never heard of it. THEN, we found another, but it was a squat
type. Cool ! WE had never seen this one before. I carefully
extracted a super thin Hemingray wax sealer embossed, "Patent September
18th, 1860". It was unusual for a wax sealer as the wax ring was formed
in the mold of the jar, rather than being applied. We have dug a DOZEN
of these particular jars, but always broken. This one was
perfect, and thin as a light bulb. We also found another amber quart
blob beer, this one a John Kauffman, also from Cincinnati. A cone ink, a
large glyco-thymoline, and a nice pressed glass tumbler rounded off the
dig, and it was over.
We
refilled the hole, and since it was such a big depression to start with,
I cleaned up the owners lot a little by tossing in some of the debris
that was lying around on the ground. We jumbled the big limestone rocks
as we threw them back in, making some air pockets, and then shoveled in
the dirt. The pit filled in nicely and was up to grade level when we put
the sod back on.
We
had a few stopper-bys as we were digging. A couple of interested 12 year
old boys, Drew, and his buddy who I cant remember his name, (sorry
buddy) were a couple of well mannered kids who we gave some bottles to.
They thought what we were doing was cool, which made us
feel like 12 year old boys again.
Right
before we left, Mike tried a spot we had probed earlier and this time,
got past whatever obstruction had kept him out before and SWOOSH - pop -
snap - pop... OH YEA !!!
This
is another stony and it's on the same lot so it looks like we have
another pit to dig. With all the post 1900 stuff in the top 4 feet of
the last pit, and late 80's on the bottom, we are calculating this pit
to take up where the previous pit left off. So let's see....That means
1880's on the top....and 1850 on the bottom !!! The use layer is
probably only a foot down, and runs plum to the bottom at about 10 feet.
OK..., now I'm either dreaming, or jinxing us to death !!!
Nahhh...our Mojo will defend.
December 18th
and 19th, 2004
Saturday.
I got
an e-mail from a feller named Shawn, who said his brother Dave had an
old house in Harrison, and if he could talk him into it, we could dig
his privy. I encouraged him to do his best in the "talking into".
When
he got back to me he said it was cool, his brother was hip, after he
explained that we take care of the yard, and replace the sod.
We
showed up at 9 am Saturday morning and met Dave and headed around back.
The county auditors web site said this place was built in 1875. Shawn
had said there was an old original carriage house in the back, and no
other outbuildings. We assumed the carriage house would be old enough to
NOT be setting over any of the privy pits.
Around back was a couple of walkways. One was concrete pavers that led
to the door of the carriage shop, and one was of cut limestone that led
back beside the carriage house and ended at nothing, near the back
property line. I first stabbed a depression near the back of the house
and tapped something solid at 3 feet, most likely a septic tank top.
Then I walked down the length of the limestone walkway and stuck a probe
in through gravel. It felt softer by a little, so Mike stuck in the 7
footer. It sailed in to the handle, but there was little layering and no
glass at all. Mike used the short probe and stuck it in diagonally and
thought he had a couple of walls.
He
did a test hole on where he thought the corner was and found the top of
a limestone wall. Digging toward the other wall he located the nice,
neat 45 degree angle of it, right where he said it would be.
We
broke out the tarps and started flinging dirt. Dave was ultra cool with
where it was, as there was no sod, and it was in an area that he didn't
really use. We got down a couple of feet and got three walls exposed.
The fourth wall was still a couple feet away so we left some hanging for
the time being. It was a good sized pit, maybe 4 by 6 feet.
Shawn
and some of his buddies from work showed up. One of his friends told him
about my web page and clued him in on the dealio. These guys are
artifact hunters and were interested in the coolness of privy digging.
They had lots of good questions. Shawn started singing "Take me home
country road" and smiling at me and glancing at one of his buds. It took
me a minute, and then, I noticed said Bud was somewhat of a John Denver
clone. They all started laughing, including John Denver, whose real name
is Rob. Lol.
We
got the pit down to about 5 feet and were still pulling up chunks of
plastic and aluminum foil balls. YIKES !!! Harrison pits are usually
only 6 or 7 feet deep. It would have to get old quick or the rest of the
fill would be staying in the pit. We decided to halve the pit down to
look for age before removing all of the contents. This decision had us 7
feet deep on the deep side before too long, and we were still too new,
finding threaded bromos and graduated meds. At 8.5 feet we hit seeds and
the bottles started becoming blown. We tossed up Bromo after Bromo, of
mainly the large and medium sizes. We had around 40 of them or so by
this time. The ground was littered with cobalt.
Dave
bought a stack of pizzas and I took a fiver inside his heated carriage
shop to scarf a hot piece and chat with the guys. The subject was Rob's
Cumberland point, type distribution, type comparison, etc... It was hard
to tear away from it, but Mike gave a yelp, which I translated in the
privy digger dialect to mean, "BUCKET !!!"
After
awhile our audience had to peel out. They had watched for hours. The
fill in the pit was loaded with big round cobbles, and it was pretty
stiff digging. We got half of the pit down to 9 feet and it was solid
seeds. Out pops a ton of glass. The buckets being dumped onto the pile
made the sound every privy digger wants to hear. The bottles were older
in the seed layer. Up came 2 Jacobs oels, a pierces favorite
prescription, three Dayton Ohio flavorings, and then from the depths
mike hands up a broken iron pontil cathedral peppersauce. Shortly after,
another one. The pile grew by Bromos rapidly. We had about a hundred at
this point. A pontil puff was scratched out of the seeds, then the bases
and panels of two iron pontil scroll flasks. Pieces of a lovely green
sided bottle kept showing up until a piece with some letters on it said
it was a townsends sarsaparilla. Another broken amber panel popped out
with H & K stomach tonic bitters written across it. An intact Warners
safe cure came up from the bottom, along with an intact open pontil Dr.
G W Phillips Diarhoea Syrup. Gross !!! Those two words should not be
used together !!!
It
was getting late, and we still had the other half of the contents from 5
foot on down to get out. We talked it over and Dave was cool with us
coming back the next day to finish. We covered the pit with a piece of
plywood and put a tarp over the glassy dirt pile and pealed out, excited
about what else might be in the bottom of the pit.
Sunday
I
arrived about 9:30 and removed the tarp from the dirt pile. I pulled the
plywood off the pit and jumped in and started scratching around in the
fluff. Mike arrived a few minutes later and I already had 10 more large
and medium size Bromos. Shawn and Dave came out and watched us dig for
awhile, then went back inside. The temp. was 15 degrees and the wind was
gusting to 30 miles an hour. Being in the pit wasn't bad, but being the
guy on bucket duty was misery.
We
caved the other side of the pit down into buckets and hauled it out
until we were right on top of the seeds and glass. Again, Bromos
dominated the finds. It got to the point where I was getting salty
whenever my scratcher would slide across a bottle and I would wipe it
and see blue. Finally a few aqua bottles came up. One was a nice open
pontil olive oil, and another was a super crude pontiled free blown oil
or vinegar bottle. Mike handed up a tiny op umbrella and a couple of
smooth base cabin inks. We got two iron pontil and one smooth base
"Compound Extract of Hops and Boneset", a "GW Phillips cough Syrup", a
nice square ridged pepper sauce, a Helmbolds Genuine fluid extracts, an
op ayers cherry pectoral, an amber Murdock liquid food, a Wards
Liniment, an Indian chalogua, 2 trade pipes, and a stoneware ink. We
also got about 50 more Bromos for the day. The Bromo grand total was
136, and only 6 of them were the small size. 14 were the large size, and
the rest were both sizes of medium.
A
few.
A few more
The Diarrhoea.....um...... Syrup.
(I'll just have the maple, thank you.)
The Pirate in the pit.
From the left, Shawn, me, Mike, and Dave.
A few Bromo Seltzers.
We
wrapped it up at about 3:00 and gathered up our stuff, and restored the
dig area. Dave came out and we divided the Bromos up equally. We took a
few other bottles and gave him the majority. Mike and I both wanted the
Warners but it is such a neatly embossed large amber bottle that we
thought Dave would like it so I stuck it in his pile. He mentioned he
might give it to his Dad.
We
sure enjoyed this dig !!! Shawn and Dave and their buddies are crack
ups. I may have more pictures to go with this update shortly. A big
thanks to Rob (Country Roads) for remembering my page, Shawn for setting
it up, and Dave for hosting the dig.
Below, a Bromo display shelf.
Today
as I write, it is Wednesday December 22nd, and we just had a foot of
snow hit the ground. I guess I'll need a longer probe.
