When I was a boy eight years old, growing up in the California Delta, my father told me on one fine October day he was off to the “church in the tulesâ€.....He was an interesting man.... a duck hunter thru & thru. That man lived to hunt ducks.
Naturally I became a duck hunter too.....that was until I got back from three years in the service of our country....Now don't get me wrong....I was a hunter once....I know the allure......It's just not right for me now....and it will never be again.
The one constant is a desire to do something & do it well..To be so into that pursuit ….that it would be your “church in the tulesâ€. Dad gave me that.
To do it well......family, friends.....what ever the pursuit....just do it well....suck the marrow out of life.....and do it now.
Antique bottles...color & crudity....the thrill of discovery....sink a hole in the ground & drop back 150 years in time. As the earth carves away, you see the possibility & then the proof that the bottle gods have given you this moment....
Thank you....brush the soil away & peer into a translucent piece of history. Line-em up....cobalt thru turquoise....amber thru yellow.....lime thru forest green.....seize the moment.....
I dropped into a little trash layer....anaerobic black mud. The shovel sliced thru the “ick†like a knife thru cheese....barely a stone...just a nice clean slice …... Not too much pressure...just a gentle slice ready to back off at the slightest sound of glass. You know...that click that screams whole & possibility.
And then it was there.....I think I felt it thru my entire being. My eyes searched wildly for that first trace...a glint of turquoise sparkled in the sun light the first it had seen in over one hundred years.
Slowly an eight sided shape appeared....with letters embossed vertically down the panels..... large plump letters that scream age.
John Baker Soda Water.......nice kick-up with most of the graphite....I'm in my church in the tules. It's years later....I still smell that unforgettable back soil. I still feel the shiver of discovery. The bottle stands with its brothers. It has a slight list to the right...sort of a nodd....sort of a thumbs up. Good gracious its beautiful....Love them old bottles.[
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JOHN S BAKER MINERAL WATERS THIS BOTTLE IS NEVER SOLD, 8-sided [western soda or mineral water bottle] with iron pontil.....although the Baker bottle has never been considered western, we have seen clippings from Sacramento publications proclaiming a John S. Baker soda or mineral water manufacturer.
Naturally I became a duck hunter too.....that was until I got back from three years in the service of our country....Now don't get me wrong....I was a hunter once....I know the allure......It's just not right for me now....and it will never be again.
The one constant is a desire to do something & do it well..To be so into that pursuit ….that it would be your “church in the tulesâ€. Dad gave me that.
To do it well......family, friends.....what ever the pursuit....just do it well....suck the marrow out of life.....and do it now.
Antique bottles...color & crudity....the thrill of discovery....sink a hole in the ground & drop back 150 years in time. As the earth carves away, you see the possibility & then the proof that the bottle gods have given you this moment....
Thank you....brush the soil away & peer into a translucent piece of history. Line-em up....cobalt thru turquoise....amber thru yellow.....lime thru forest green.....seize the moment.....
I dropped into a little trash layer....anaerobic black mud. The shovel sliced thru the “ick†like a knife thru cheese....barely a stone...just a nice clean slice …... Not too much pressure...just a gentle slice ready to back off at the slightest sound of glass. You know...that click that screams whole & possibility.
And then it was there.....I think I felt it thru my entire being. My eyes searched wildly for that first trace...a glint of turquoise sparkled in the sun light the first it had seen in over one hundred years.
Slowly an eight sided shape appeared....with letters embossed vertically down the panels..... large plump letters that scream age.
John Baker Soda Water.......nice kick-up with most of the graphite....I'm in my church in the tules. It's years later....I still smell that unforgettable back soil. I still feel the shiver of discovery. The bottle stands with its brothers. It has a slight list to the right...sort of a nodd....sort of a thumbs up. Good gracious its beautiful....Love them old bottles.[
]JOHN S BAKER MINERAL WATERS THIS BOTTLE IS NEVER SOLD, 8-sided [western soda or mineral water bottle] with iron pontil.....although the Baker bottle has never been considered western, we have seen clippings from Sacramento publications proclaiming a John S. Baker soda or mineral water manufacturer.
