How did you get started?

[Gromit0299]

Hi all. Just a question. How did you become interested in finding old glass? I've always been attracted to it, but it was the repro EG Booz that my cousin bought at a flea market that got me interested.

I've been having a bit of a hard time finding places to dig. I live in SE PA, and it's FULL of woods and all sorts of other stuff. But how long did it take you to gain some experience as to where to look? Topo maps seem foreign to me, still. I sort of get it, but I've been also looking at some historic maps and google satellite. And then, just throwing darts at a spot and going for a hike.

 

[epackage]

I was a long time collector of items from Paterson NJ and then one day BAM a few bottles came my way and the rest is history. I now have about 350 bottles from Paterson in my collection...I slowed down on other Paterson items unless they are really special and I am dedicated to the bottles now.....Jim

 

[lexdigger]

I was checking a construction site for Arrowheads one day. Didn't find any rocks, but found a bunch of bottles! Contacted the property owner about digging and ended up spending around six months there digging up old bottles. Turned out the site was an old dump! Actually did dig one Arrowhead there too! After the dump was gone I got into privy digging and still do it every chance I get.

 

[CALDIGR2]

Hmmm, the year was 1961 and after seeing some old(?) guys digging bottles in Old Sacramento I was hooked. Been at it ever since. Indian artifacts were my first collecting habit, but bottles soon took over and the points took a back seat for many years. About 15 years ago, the arrowpoint bug got me again and both now dominate my free time.[]

 

[CWBookAuthor]

How did you I get started?

More than 40 years ago, I was digging an untouched Civil War site in Virginia and dug a cobalt-blue, open pontiled umbrella ink, among other bottles. I had no idea of its value, I just thought that it was very cute. Not even a year later, a museum got the site and I was hired as a volunteer to excavate it for all Civil War relics.

Mike

 

[DIGS CHESCO]

As a boy of 8 or 9 years old I was riding in the car with my dad when I saw a sign for Old Bottles for Sale. My dad explained to me that people collect old bottles, I started looking for old bottles that day and came upon a PORTO RICO BEVERAGES “its Sodalicious†ACL which is the only modern bottle in my collection today. I started finding and digging dumps when I was about 12 years old, and continued dump digging until my mid teens; all along I wondered how to find those green squat bottles with the odd abbreviation of Philadelphia (PhiladA.)
Along came cars, girls, work, beer, college, woman, more work and probably more beer and woman until I found myself married for the first time at age 41. About 6 years ago shortly after I got married I began taking my young son to watch heavy equipment moving dirt at construction sites. As I watched track hoes lifting dirt the thought occurred to me again, how do I find those green squat bottles?

The answer was the internet. First I purchased Eddie Brater’s Essentials of Privy Digging, which I read cover to cover, and realized the first tool I need is a probe. I purchased a probe through a contact I made on this forum at the 2010 Baltimore Bottle show. For me my hobby is divided between the pre-probe digging days and post-probe digging. And now, I find those green squat bottles with the odd abbreviation of Philadelphia (PhiladA.).

Tom

 

[JohnN]

I was always somewhat interested, but was never interested in digging. A month or 2 ago, my dad was cutting weeds and such in the woods. He found a bottle just laying in the dirt, and I decided I would dig around everywhere to see what I could find. First, I dug a dump with 1920's-40's bottles, mostly milk, but also a Dixie-Shake bottle. After that dried up (at least I think it is, I'll go back someday). Next I went to an area that was always full of broken glass, but I never thought to dig down. That was full of 1890's-1910's bottles. I've been to a few different areas, but never turned up much. I wonder if all of these sites are connected or not. Since it is getting cooler out, I'll probably be digging more soon. Hopefully I'll find something good. -John

 

[LC]

When I came out of the service , I tore an old house with a log foundation down . Upon tearing up the floor , I found old bottles under it . A short time later I visited an old friend that I had not seen for quite a while . He had accidentally stumbled upon the old city dump where we grew up . After seeing the bottles he had , the bug latched onto me and I have been hooked ever since .

 

[VTdigger]

When I was about 7 or 8 my father used to take me to a late teens early 20's dump near the trailer park where we used to live, much like my grandfather used to take him on digs. My grandfather had lots of antiques, as my dad remembers, and not just bottles but furniture,tools china Etc. Unfortunately he had to sell off most of them to get out of tough times a few years before my parents met.

 

[RED Matthews]

Hello all you bottle finders. It is enjoyable to read about how others got the bug. I think I covered my history in coverage in my homepage. After helping my Mom create a little rock garden with an old piece of mirror for a pond with stones around it and various rocks and plants - my parents visited some friends of theirs and they let me play around if I stayed in the yard. In that yard, I found the woman's rock garden. It had a good two dozen pieces of different colored and formed glass pieces, that just sparkled in the sun light. I ran into the house all excited for a seven or eight year old boy. I told my Mom she had to come out and see their rock and flower garden. They all did and the man enjoyed my excitement. When we left to go home - the man gave me a box with six or seven pieces of glass in it. He told me to take them home for our rock garden. I still have those pieces of glass, and have collected glass ever since. Now 82 yoa. I have studied and worked in the glass industry all of these years. What a start it was.
RED Matthews