How you started to collect bottles

[blobbottlebob]

I know this has been done - but there are so many great stories out there about how people began this hobby. The first thing I'd like to post is by Justglass. (It is from another thread). Here's his story. Mine will come shortly.


I never thought that bottles would be part of my life. My son and I were fishing and stumbled on a bottle dump when we took a short cut from the river back to the car. We worked the dump for a month on and off and took about 1/4 of my collection from that one dump. I also picked up a good portion from my father in law who did excavating jobs with heavy equipment. Thats how my collecting started. It then expanded to garage sales and barn sales where I found that I could sometimes by boxes of bottles for 5 bucks. The next looking places were any antique shops from Maine, New Hampshire, Mass., Ny and of course Vt. I then found myself looking for certain colors and kinds that could only be found on ebay. I did alot of buying and selling and tried as best to upgrade as I went along. As you can see a large amount of my collection are just common bottles that I didn't sink alot of money into but have a nice variety colors. I still look for the eye catcher but I have to admit my bottle collecting has slowed down drasticly. Bottle shows have recently been my latest buying sprees. Thank God I only go to two a year. When I sarted to collect I meant a older man who told me that bottle collecting was a addicting hobby. I laughed and told him that I only wanted a couple and I can't imagine how anyone could get addicted to collecting old bottles. Wow was I wrong.

 

[blobbottlebob]

In 1996, a group of friends were going to get scuba certified. Two or three days before classes began, they asked me if I wanted to join in with them. I was concerned that I didn't have enough time to prepare. (It took reading and comprehending a 300 page book and watching five videos). They talked me into going, and I have never regretted it. I rapidly read the book and went to classes and had a blast.

Next, we began to dive from my parents place out on a lake. At first, we did everything by the book. We'd surface if we separated. We'd plan and log our dives. Most of our gear was new and sparkling clean. Within our first few dives, we already began to find things. Old rusty anchors, lures and some bottles. I remember the next door neighbor came over to check out an embossed milk our buddy Tom had brought back. (It was probably from a tiny town and copletely unknown). She asked if she could buy it. I think he said sure and gave her the price of an airfill -thinking that his dive is paid for with one little milk. She hurried off (in case he changed his mind) and handed him the money quickly. Hmm. People really liked these things.

Before long we began to find hutches, various beers and medicines. We wanted to know more about them. We asked an elderly neighbor (in his eighties) if he had ever used a hutch as a kid - and he did not recall ever doing it. These must be really old. Before long we were getting hooked.

By a freak of luck, we ran into other divers at a boat launch at something like 5:30 in the morning. We could see scuba gear in their boat and asked them if they were bottle diving. They would not come clean. However, we were too eager to learn more, so, they said we'll hook up with you after you dive. Later, when they saw that we had boxes full of loot -they admitted that they were bottle diving. They apparently did not want to turn us on to the sport (because who needs more competition?) Eventually, they became great friends. One of them, Jim, gave us the names of books and authors to hunt down so that we could learn more about what we were finding. That, was an excellent idea and really helped us figure what we were doing.

In those early days, I vowed to remember where and how I found every bottle. And I could do it for a year or so. Now, I can usually tell you the lake - but often I'd have to guess at the year or location, etc . . . I can still tell you on the good stuff, though. It's been a great adventure collecting and learning. When I'm not out diving, sometimes I wish I was. When I'm out diving and finding nothing but mud hour after hour- I wish I would have stayed home and been productive. Oh well. It really is fun.

Way back before I married, we would dive for a whole day. IT wasn't unusual to do four or five tanks in one trip. I think I dove over 160 tanks in one year. Now, two is a lot on one day, thirty or forty for a year. I clean mud out of my ear weeks and weeks after my last dive. Okay. I've rambled. Looking forward to other stories people!

 

[reallyrs]

I have collected vaseline glass for years. So one day, my brother from another mother (Joppo, RIP) stops by my house and shows me a shoebox full of vaseline glass shards he had found at the local bottle dump that day. I knew he went and dug bottles, and had some pretty cool old bottles, but the thought of digging in the dirt for an old piece of glass just seemed ridiculous to me. We lived on the Oregon coast, so it is muddy probably a good 80% of the year at the dump. But he really wanted me to go try it out, kept saying I would love it, that i needed to try it, it wouldn't turn me into one of the "Agate Maggots" (the people we would see turning over every stone on the beach, morning noon and night, yes even after dark by flashlight, scouring for the occasional agate they would find-- Its a meth thing). So, the vaseline shards were the lure it took me to go check out this dump.
My first time ever digging, I found about a half dozen marbles, 3 or 4 old metal cars, a metal plane, a toy pistol, hundreds of intact TOC bottles, an enameled chamberpot, and an old crude, hazy embossed bromoseltzer bottle. And I was hooked. What had begun as me lightly scraping and poking at the surface over a matter of hours had evolved into full on burrowing. I have always enjoyed learning local history, and really history in general, and something about these old bottles made all over the country, and even from all over the world engaged my imagination in a way i would never have believed possible. It led me to learn about the history of the area, and to start seeking out old buildings/ businesses that were "famous" 70-100 years ago, but no longer standing. It led me to form deeper ties with the community as I got to know local old timers who would gladly ramble on about "The old days" as i sat and listened for clues to where I would go to dig next.
Now when I dig, it is kind of a melancholy joy-- I can't help but think of the great times Joppo and I had digging, of the cool and common stuff that we took such pleasure in unearthing, of the commando raids on that overgrown patch of brush and trees in the middle of a pasture that we KNEW indicated an old house or barn... It makes me miss him, and at the same time makes me appreciate him even more, for leading me to something I enjoy and would have never known without him.

 

[reallyrs]

PS-- I still haven't ever dug an unbroken piece of vaseline glass dammit.

 

[blobbottlebob]

Great story Reallyrs. Sorry to hear about Joppo and I'm also sorry that I don't know what vaseline glass is. Is it like carnival glass? Depression glass? A Cheeseburough jar??

When I sarted to collect I meant a older man who told me that bottle collecting was a addicting hobby. I laughed and told him that I only wanted a couple and I can't imagine how anyone could get addicted to collecting old bottles. (Justglass)

I remember back in the beggining hearing about how people would buy bottles. I thought that it was odd that you'd buy one when you could just go find them. I didn't hink I would ever resort to paying for them. And then, when I saw some bottles priced at hundreds of dollars, I thought, "Man. Some of these pepople have cash to burn." Now, it's hard to even relate to that. I have thousands tied into my collection. I guess it didn't take too long to learn that there is no way to find them all.

 

[rockbot]

I've been an avid hog hunter for most of my life. I have a team of dogs that I use to hunt down wild boar in the rain forests of my Island. I also have a commercial hog farm. Over the years I have had trouble with wild boars coming around when my sows are in heat. About 15 years ago it was getting out of control so my hunting partner and I decided to track down this boar. It was a challenge since other farms reside in this area. One early morning my hunting dogs were howling and I knew that he was around. As soon as day broke I leashed up the dogs and headed out back. With in minutes they were on his trail. The dogs were set free and the chase was on. However that boar was quite clever as he knew his way around and under fences and took us out to the edge of a river bank. Incredibly he jumped 15 feet into a pool of water below leaving us stranded. We had to find another way down which set us back and gave him ample time to slip away. Once we got down to the river bed the dogs had there work cut out for them. We started up this much smaller creek that fed into the river when my friend noticed a partly buried cork top beer poking out of the clay. When he was young he did some bottle digging with his dad and explained to me how certain old bottles are worth money. He convinced me to spend a little time scanning the area. The hunt was going cold so I thought sure why not. We followed the creek up for another 50 ft or so and noticed shards of glass and pottery. The shards eventually stopped so we new we went to far. We tied out the dogs and dropped our packs to scan the sides of the creek. Up on top of the bank I noticed the tops of several bottles protruding from the roots. Bingo!
The next day we came back with the proper tools and cut away the roots to expose what would be 127 corked beers, whiskeys and utility bottles some of which is the crudest bottles That I have ever found. Been hooked every since!

Aloha, Rocky

 

[RICKJJ59W]

My story "Bottles in the Blood" on my web site tells the tale.Its to early I don't feel like typing []

 

[Road Dog]

I started bottle digg'n in 1972. Our family just moved to Currituck county N.C.. We moved into a neighborhood that was just being developed. As kids will do we made our way around the subdivision checking out all the newly cleared and partially cleared lots. Me and my sister came across a old surface dump that had become exposed at the edge of one of the clearings. It had all sorts of turn of the century stuff in it. We as kids were captivated by the old SS Coca Colas we found. Most of these were Elizabeth City N.C. and we even found a W.C. Dawson there. He was the guy who ran the Coca Cola Plant in Elizabeth City. We dug around that dump for a few weeks always turning up enough to keep us fired up. I dug dump sites for 10 more years in Currituck County. Moved to Raleigh for a good job and here I am today taaaaaaahh.....daaaahh.[]

 

[Poison_Us]

I ditto Rickjj..
While the wife is still sleeping, I'm tweaking my website yet again, something I should have done in the first place, plus I forgot to put our KR-10s on it. oops.

 

[blobbottlebob]

Rocky,
That is the coolest start to bottle collecting ever. You went hog wild. (Sorry). I really do think that you began collecting in a neat way. By some quirk of luck, that boar led you to the bottles. Crazy. Crazy and cool.

It is kind of the same with Road Dog, Justglass, and I. We all made these fortuitous discoveries of bottles when were wern't really looking for them Then, before you knew it, we began full-fledge collecting.

Keep those stories coming!