September 22nd 2007

A local fella who writes for the Harrison Press decided he wanted to do a story about privy digging, and more precisely, my story about the 7 man dig. He did, and it turned out really well. A few days after it came out, I got an e-mail from a guy (Larry) who lives a couple miles away. He said he saw how we found a "Rinninsland" squat soda, and informed me that H.C. Rinninsland was his great grandfather. He further explained that he had photo's of the crown bottling works with HC standing out front, and although it was interesting, he had nothing else relating to his great grandfather, and was wondering if I would consider selling an example of the H.C. Rinninsland squat soda. I told him that I was very sorry, but I hardly EVER sell any of the stuff I dig...but...that I occasionally GIVE things away, and that I would be happy to give him a couple of different variants of the bottle he was looking for. He was delighted. I went to see him and his wife the next day and they were happy to have two different bottles from his great grandfathers bottling works. In turn, he provided me with copies of the photographs he had, along with a small write up on H.C. Rinninsland.

Below, thats Henry C Rinninsland on the right.

We chatted about the humble art of privy digging, and I learned from Larry's wife that as a child she lived on Broadway in Harrison. She described the house and I realized that it was one of the few places I hadn't dug. She said she knew the current residents and that maybe she could get me permission.

Flash forward to a couple days ago. I told Steve about this meeting and the information about the house while he was at work, getting ready to leave for the day. An hour later he calls me back, from home now, and explains that he stopped by the house on Broadway and got us permission to dig there, as well as at the house next door, which was a 1930 place, but was on the lot of an 1860's church. Oh yeah, he also said he probed up a pit while he was there.

I met Mike and Steve on Saturday morning to have a go at the places. I figured out loud that the pits on the x-church lot would be on the far corners of the back, as is customary for old schools and churches. One for the menfolk, and one for the damsels, as far apart as could be physically located. Well sure enough there they were. I probed them both up and they were rather shallow 6 or 7 foot woodies. We went into the back yard of the house and re-probed Steves pit. It took all 7 feet of my long probe through a soft sandy fill. The issue was how dern close it was to the back of the house. It was 15 feet away !!!.

We tore into one of the corner pits from the old church lot. It was stiff and barren all the way down to the bottom. It had no use layer at all, and save for a few food bones and chunks of coal, was empty. The other corner pit probed like it had at least a shallow use layer on the bottom, maybe 6 or 8 inches thick, so we decided to go for the pit behind the house. After not very long, our test hole revealed we were into a brick cistern. The bottom was 6 feet down and it probed like it was sand all the way to the bottom. We angle probed just inside the concurvate walls (where the bottles usually hide in cisterns from rolling off the cone shaped heap) and found nothing there as well. We decided at that point to go back behind the block garage and probe back by the alley.

The ground back by the alley was thick gravel, and Mr. Pointy Spudbar came out to chip a probe hole through it. it was a foot of some pretty tight old crushed limestone. Right as I got the spudbar through it, a lady from next door appeared and began asking questions. As I was talking to her, Steve was falling onto his probe handle into an obvious pit. We cracked it open to find a stone liner full of ash and bone and broken ironstone. Down we went.

Below, Mike in the pit, Steve standing guard. The brown tarp holds the gravel from the top, so it can be put back in where it goes.

Below, Mr. Stoneliner and his gravel hat.

At 5 feet the glass and seeds started and stayed heavy all the way to the 7 foot bottom. There was lots of glass. The keeper pile consisted of the broken shards we started finding near the top (signs of encouragement) and two small slicks and a punkinseed flask. Everything seemed to be broken.

Below, Mike DARES the pit to produce an unbroken example of ANY DAMN THING !!!

In the end we got a couple more slicks and an intact ironstone chamber pot lid. We gave the entire pile to the homeowner who was happy to have them and excited at what we might find in the 2nd woody on his lot. We shall return for more spoils and or torture soon.

Next weekend we head back to Covington.