Another Sunday privy

[CALDIGR2]

Since Sunday is the only day that we can prowl a local town without being "eyeballed" by the local denizens, we have no choice but to leave the place alone during the week and on Saturdays. Probing, and digging, must be taken care of on the only day that is open to explore the area. I arrived at 0830 yesterday morning and immediately went to stabbing the earth with my trusty 5' "prod". Three previous pits had been dug there, one by me over 30 years ago, and a couple more in recent weeks. the only reason that the other pits hadn't been found a long time ago was their depth. The 4' probes we had back then couldn't touch these holes.

After a few minutes of concentrated probing, snap, crunch, the all telling sound of a privy pit. This one had a layer beginning at about 4 1/2'. I spent a few minutes cleaning debris off the top, then went for a walk while awaiting the arrival of my diggin' partner. Once he got there we threw down green and opened 'er up. Due to the many Tree of Heaven, aka "Stink Tree", roots we had to make use of both shovel and root saw to make any progress. I was plowing down at a steady and frenzied pace, when all of a sudden there was this sickening sound that we immediately recognized for exactly what it was. In my exuberance, I had whacked a couple of nice ones, a foamy light amber applied top union oval flask and an HHH Horse Medicine. DAMN, there went my first picks! Gotta slow down. Those two must've been late throwbacks, because the other layer was still a ways down there.

It took about an hour to get the pit opened enough to make headway and to the size of the rough outline. Now, into the mess we went. It was max jammer, with tons of everything you can imagine a privy to contain. Here's the start of the "pile".

 

[CALDIGR2]

It wasn't long before plenty of "plainos", common meds and sarsaparillas began to show up. Most everything was applied top and the western glass was "sparklematic".
Buckets filled rapidly with the privy booty and bottles were laying everywhere. So far, no evidence of boozing, dangit.

 

[CALDIGR2]

Lots of everything but whiskeys and bitters was coming up. A rare local hutch and plenty of canning jars. Complete and undamaged ironstone pieces were also in there. Why they tossed perfectly good plates and dishes is beyond me.

 

[CALDIGR2]

By this time, the trash pile was growing fast and we still had a long way to go. A few pottery pieces turned up with the rest of the cagada, as well as lamps and brass pieces. It was beginning to look interesting, but still no sign of liquor. I was beginning to despair. LOL

 

[CALDIGR2]

More "stuff". Geez, this was becoming boring and repetitive. Old enough, but not good enough. This is the size of the privy, an unlined pit cut in the clay soil. Most pits in these local town are either "woodies" or unlined. The hard clay doesn't really require a supporting redwood liner. Occasionally, an early "bricker" turns up, but those are mostly found in the commercial zones. No "stoners" out here, except the local residents who mostly qualify for that category.

 

[CALDIGR2]

Geez, this is a long winded post. Oh well, I can't stop now. OK, more goodies were rolling out, but still no booze containers. Looks like these folks were "teetotalers". WAAAA! My hopes of a fifth or square went over the fence, as it were. Here's a look at the pit interior and some of the layers within. What little quality there was is near the bottom, just off the floor. The actual floor of the privy held only broken ironstone and window glass. Regardless, 'ya gotta "polish" the bottom, anyway.

 

[CALDIGR2]

More of the mess. Something to put all the "keepers" in was in short supply, too. You DO NOT bring divider boxes on a dig. To do so is very bad "juju" and will kill a dig before you began. It's much better to run around in a panic, trying to find something to put the crap in.

 

[CALDIGR2]

When is this silly post gonna end? I have too many bottles and plates to wash up to be sitting here typing a BS story.

OK, it's almost done, I think. Still the pit went down. The bottom was at 6' and the outside dimensions were 3 1/2 X 5'. Too much everything. Hope there's enough dirt to backfill properly. This long necked, eastern made, "Ladies Leg" bitters finally showed up. I say made in the East because of the "sickness"of the glass. Western made ones sparkle and only need a water rinse. This one will take a month on the machine to make presentable.

 

[CALDIGR2]

In the end, we got close to a hundred keeper bottles. Besides the "Leg" and the hutch, there were many local, and distant, pharmacies, lotta jars, some cheezy pottery, a dozen perfect plates, and this lime green Western ammonia with a gnarly "donut" top. It's VERY limey, but full of dirt in the pic.

It was another fun dig, but turned up no liquor bottles. Bummer. Oh well, we'll take what we can get and hope for better next time. Any privy that has so much potential gets your blood going, doesn't it? Even after a half century of doing this it still "winds my clock". I'll do it again next weekend, unless we get water on our duck pond. Then, it'll be shooting in the morning and digging after noon. The best of both worlds.

 

[glass man]

THANKS MIKE!! I NEVER GET TIRED OF SEEING DIG SITES AND BOTTLES COMMON-SUPER RARE! ITS ALL GOOD![8D] JAMIE