September 9th 2006

This morning about 8 am, my ten year old son, Edwin George Brater IV, ran to me as I pulled in my driveway from the neighbors house and yelled, "Dad, I found a privy pit for you to dig, c'mon !!!" So...I grabbed my probe and followed him. We headed over to the house that sets catty-corner from the back of my lot. I was no stranger to this house and lot. When the last owners had it, I got permission and Mike and I probed our arms off. We could not locate a pit to save ourselves. Right before the last owners sold the place, they tore down a couple of old sheds on the side of the house. This was where my boy ran to and was pointing at the ground, yelling, "SEE...SEE... Right there". He was pointing to a square concrete liner poking itself up out of the weeds a few inches. Well, not that I wanted anything to do with a concrete lined pit, but I realized this was one of the places we could not have probed, so I set about probing a line in each direction from the 'crete liner. There were crunchy pits on both sides !!! The new owner came out and not only gave the go-ahead, but insisted I dig the pits right away, and that they would be assisting me. "Well twist my arm and call me corn-pone", I was all fer it !

The wife said she would very much like to help also ! This was starting to look like one of those days where I should stop and just run right to the store for some lottery tickets. Instead I decided to just gamble with what the pits may holding, and I flung down blue and started chucking dirt.

Below, the homeowner and me.

I took the first pit, a woody, down to six feet in one corner, and found bottom. The only other thing in that corner besides the bottom, was a lonely light bulb. I fillderin.

Stepping to the other side of the concrete liner, I opened up what probed like a stone liner. At just two feet I found the wall to be lathed over stone. ???????? As I probed more, I found it had a bottom at 5 feet, and was a 4 by 4 box. I decided to see if I could get any age, so I dug down one of the walls to the bottom, and pulled out a broken crown top. Again, I fillderin.

Below, me and the Homeowner.

Now I was opening the last of my probed pits. It was a stone liner (with no lathe) and many of the shards were at least aqua and sick. At three feet I found seeds and some more older shards so I opened it up to all 4 walls and started filling buckets. The homeowners assisted in the bucket yanking, and Lisa my wife split turns with me in the hole. She can really dig, bless her red headed heart. What a girl !!!

The layer was sparse and gave up very little. There were a dozen broken Mason jars, along with a few slick unembossed meds. I had thought I cornered another slick when to my surprise I saw embossing. I figured it for another Cincinnati pharmacy, but was instead rewarded with a local Harrison Pharmacy, "The West Side Drug Store". Allrighty then !!!

Right on the bottom something large and speckled with blue started showing itself and I was able to easily pull it free from the light, soft seeds to find a large blue sponged ironstone chamber pot. The homeowner was in love with it before it hit the sunshine, and when I pulled out the intact lid I thought she was going to faint.

A few more slicks later and I had the 4 corners all cleaned out. After filling it back in I once again went on a probing quest to find the older pits, as this house is on the 1869 map. It was a no-show for the older pits. After digging three, my arms pooped out pretty quick and I resigned to come back again for another stab at it.

I took the Harrison bottle and left the owners with everything else. She was tickled that she got the big chamber pot and lid. She loved it so much that there was no way I couldn't leave it for her. She said I can come back whenever I want to probe some more. I will probably be back after work each day this next week, arms willing.

Until then, I shall remain, possessed by the quest with no time to rest.