Back in the 1960's, My father & I put the 12 ft John boat into the slough near Maine Prairie....The minus tide was exceptionaly low (about a minus 1.5) and at a convenient hour of the day, about 3 pm in the afternoon not 3 am in the morning....We fired up the white 9 1/2 HP Mercury outboard..(yes they were white back then) and began to cruise slowly along the shoreline looking up at the "under cut" amid the black berries & rose brush where the flat boats used to tie. Tick, tick, tick the motor purred at a low idle. Tick tick tick we slowly searched every nook and cranny....slowly dodging newly exposed logs....an occasional splash of a mud turtle would startle you as we motored along the bank...Slowly creeping along with barely enough water to keep from cavitating, we made our way South down the slough...It was easy to imagine alligators & snakes in swamp land...but this was California free of "water hazzards".... We had found bottles sticking out of the bank on previous trips...so we kept our eyes peeled for the tell tale sign of glass....Tick, tick, tick we were slowly getting away from the area where we found most of our bottles...The slough was wider & shallower...The outboard was churning up quite a bit of silt....then up ahead I saw just the very top of a bottle sitting up off the bottom...The minus tide exposed a ring top. We slowly made our way up to the bottle & I reached over the front to recover a J.T. Daly Club House Gin...The bottle still had the cork in it...there was absolutely no damage. I used a pocket knife to pry out the cork being ever so careful. The liquid inside was the seepage of slough water & gin....still arromatic, but disgustingly murkey....The exterior of the bottle was perfect.
I've pictured below, that J.T.Daly Clubhouse Gin , being held in my wife's lovely hands....There is a second picture also posted of a another J.T.Daly with a backwards "S" in Club House.....This is the earlier varient with a graphite pontil...I found this bottle also in the area of Maine Prairie many many years later....The first Daly ClubHouse is a forest green full of a "billion" bubbles...it has a smooth base....The second Daly has a graphite pontil, and sunken panels...The bottle is more of a yellow green...I display both in our bottle cabinet....and often reminisce of the time dad & I spent together....If you really put your mind to it, you can smell the outboard motor & occasionally hear the splash of a mud turtle.
J.T. DALY / CLUBHOUSE GIN," forest/olive green, case gin form, iron pontil scar, 9" tall.[
][] Two happy faces for two gins.
I've pictured below, that J.T.Daly Clubhouse Gin , being held in my wife's lovely hands....There is a second picture also posted of a another J.T.Daly with a backwards "S" in Club House.....This is the earlier varient with a graphite pontil...I found this bottle also in the area of Maine Prairie many many years later....The first Daly ClubHouse is a forest green full of a "billion" bubbles...it has a smooth base....The second Daly has a graphite pontil, and sunken panels...The bottle is more of a yellow green...I display both in our bottle cabinet....and often reminisce of the time dad & I spent together....If you really put your mind to it, you can smell the outboard motor & occasionally hear the splash of a mud turtle.
J.T. DALY / CLUBHOUSE GIN," forest/olive green, case gin form, iron pontil scar, 9" tall.[
][] Two happy faces for two gins.
