Bottle digger

[BRIAN S.]

Here' s a pic of my Grandfather digging in Ybor city , Fl. He was known as the oldest active digger in the United States. He passed away last year at age 90 . He loved to dig and was an active digger up until a few weeks before he got ill and passed last year.
He had dug alot of holes in his lifetime in alot of different places. All over the Southern U.S. and alot in New York State also. I just wanted to share one of my favorite pics of him doing what he enjoyed most with all you diggers.

 

[Flaschenjager]

Posted no digging!

I agree, this is by far the best digging picture on the World Wide Web and all bottle related sites. The backdrop tops it off perfectly: Posted no digging! That would turn some diggers away.

 

[baltbottles]

Wow what a great picture i hope i am still able to dig when i am 89 hec! i hope i live that long. And the posted no digging sign thats just great.

Chris

 

[BRIAN S.]

Thanks for all the nice comments Guys !
And yes he dug thousands of bottles over his lifetime. And a 10.00 bottle meant as much to him as a 500.00 bottle if he had dug them.
And yes he had lots and lots of digging stories.....I used to sit down an listen to him tell his stories for hours on end.
He was robbed once while digging , a man came up to his hole and broke one of his bottles he had dug and then held it to his throat and demanded his billfold. He was in his late 70' s then. And he did the smart thing and gave it up , but only after he argued with him , telling him he could take the money but he had to leave his wallet and contents.
He said he was digging near a paved road once and got in a good trash line and it went under the road so he dug under the road edge and kept going a little further and a little further under the road , because he was finding some nice bottles. And guess what ? Yep , it came down on his head. He was digging with my Uncle and he said he looked over and all he could see was Grandpa' s feet sticking out of the hole. So , anyway he had to dig him out. And all he ended up with was a few scrapes and bruises. He was lucky ! That' s one reason you should never go digging alone for sure !
And one more story , He said he was digging one day and the City police pulled up and asked what he was doing. He said , digging for old bottles. Well , to make a long story short. The cop made him throw all his bottles back in the hole and fill it in or go to jail. Grandpa said he had some good ones too! So , from then on if he dug any bottles he wanted to keep.....He would stop digging long enough to take it and put it in the car or hide it in the bushes. He said , he wasn' t ever going to have to throw his bottles back in a hole again. He said that was one of the hardest things he ever had to do. But , it was better than jail !
Well , I know it was a long post and I hope I didn' t bore you guys .