PhilaBottles
Well-Known Member
Pontils, Food, ... BANG! "A Happy New Year!"
With a permission lined up in an east coast city between Philadelphia and Baltimore, all 5 (soon to be 6) of our crew had good feelings we would end the year with a BANG! George and I showed up in a particular port city which has very few good holes at about 7:30 AM on Sunday, December 30th 2007. When we pulled into the usual meeting spot, we were greeted by the rest of our ready to dig team: Alan, Doug, and Chris. Long story short...the person who gave us permission was evicted, and thus the permission fell through. We stood around for about 5 minutes and then scrambled to line up a hole to dig. We secured a permission in about 15 minutes on an open lot. With the cold weather at a steady 35 degrees, and the dark grey clouds looming over us, the pit was probed and my shovel went right in. The new hole we planned to nest in for the day turned out to be a slight oval brickliner which turned into a round brick feature. At about 4 feet into the clay, a techno ringtone starts up and Chris answers his cell phone. He hangs up and tells us that his friend Tom (who some of you might know from a particular Christmas Day dig) is going to stop by to see what we are up to. When Tom showed up, we made our predictions about the hole and talked about another permission Tom received 10 minutes prior to his call. Everyone was in agreement that 3 people would focus on this hole and 3 on the other. Doug, Alan, and Chris were the alpha team, and George, Tom, and I were the beta team. After Alan gave George and I a 2way radio, we followed Tom a couple blocks east and quickly arrived at the house. With a few jabs of the probe, and about 20 or 50 scoops of dirt, we had the walls exposed to another slightly oval brick feature. As usual, we threw the dirt out until the buckets were needed. Bucket after bucket, and big rock after big rock (which we call ‘llama nuts’), we were able to get the hole down to the layer which started to show around the edges at about 6 ½ feet. While I’m in the hole, I hear a thunderous sound. When I peaked out, it was a couple of kids on there roller skates (the acoustics in the hole made it sound like the apocalypse). The one juvinile who lived in the house went inside and came out with his mother. She offered hot chocolate, and we quickly accepted her Jamaican hospitality. I scratched around in the layer that was squeezing up on the sides and it seemed to be a TOC (turn of the century) context. I pulled out a few slicks and a druggist and then I started to see the freezing rain pelt off the 170 year old brick inside the hole. I got out and told Georgie to "have fun in the layer, I want my hot chocolate". The freezing rain quickly turned into unfreezing rain and steadily fell at an annoying rate. Tom set up his tripod, I pulled the buckets, and Tom dumped. George said he was in a TOC context that dropped to a pre 1860 layer literally inches below the first layer. While Tom headed to his truck to fetch a headlamp, George pulled out a very rare pontiled cough syrup bottle. He held it in his hands and looked at me with that ‘happy shocked face’. This was great! He handed it up and I handed it to Tom as he walked back, then Tom scurried to secure it in his truck. 8 feet into a hole, its raining, we hit pontils with at least 5 more feet to go, the other hole the alpha team were digging looked really good...WHAT COULD BE BETTER? As Georgie scraped around a little, Chris walked over to see how we were doing. Tom gave Chris his keys and said look in the front seat. Chris came back and knew we were getting into something good. After Chris left, George needed to get a headlamp off the alpha team since all of ours had become inoperative. Before Tom jumped in the hole, the nice lady who offered us the hot cocoa, came out to refill our cups and offer us some dinner. We told her we would take her up on the offer when we are finished. Tom jumped in the hole and started at the layer. I pulled and dumped buckets while George was gone. When George came back, we had a box and bucket full of goodies, but no more of those rare cough syrups. We separated the pottery and wrapped up any good bottle. Then unexpectedly, soaked to the bone and covered in mud, our extremities numb from cold, a pine tree cordial comes up in a bucket warming the cockles of our hearts, this was followed by some heartbreakers, and an aqua OP umbrella (which I wish would have been a real umbrella). The rain turned off for a bit when Tom found the bottom of the hole. He moved the dirt around and found some more heat breakers, pottery, and colored pontiled puffs. The layer seemed to have some early stuff in it like early broken black glass and 1830's pottery. One little area remained in the layer as George and I watched Tom move it around. Suddenly, as if by the hand of God, a very rare hair restorative rolled out. George pulled it out and wrapped it up in a potato chip bag. Tom finished the layer and climbed out of the hole. We quickly started to fill it in. The nice lady came out again asking if we would like some of her homemade pot roast...which we could smell cooking all night. Tom said give us 15 minutes. We cleaned up the alley of trash and filled in the dirt in about a half hour. We smoothed it out and made the backyard look better than before. After our tools, treasure, and goodies were put away, we walked to the backdoor and it quickly opened. Three plates of food, covered in aluminum foil were handed to us complete with plastic utensils and napkins. They invited us in, but we told them it wouldn’t be a good idea since we were covered in mud. We walked over to our vehicles and opened the plates in shock. The plates were piled with more than her pot roast. We had HAM, TURKEY, CHICKEN, POT ROAST, SWEET POTATOES, RICE, CORN, and CRANBERRY SAUCE! This was far most the nicest thing that any digger could receive...pontils and a complete HOLIDAY DINNER!!!! After we devoured the meal we went back over with more bottles for the young man who had shown interest in our archaeologic recovery endeavor, and to give another thanks to the chef. She invited us in and quickly saw why we couldn’t come in. We handed her the bag and thanked her wonderful hospitality. Tom joked around and said we will be back to enjoy some of that ‘Jamaican rum’. She said, "hold on a minute" with a delightful accent, she opened up the liquor cabinet, poured a double shot for each of us, and invited us back anytime. With everything secured in the trucks, bellies full, eyes and throats burning from the rum, we headed back to see how the rest of our team was doing. As we walked back, Alan and Doug were underneath a make shift fortification to keep dry. Doug wasn’t looking so happy, and Alan told us the horrors this hole has produced. We quickly summed up our story from beginning to end complete with pontils and dinner. Chris climbs up the ladder out of the 15 foot hole and stresses how hard this hole was to dig because of the hard compact dry 8 foot clay cap. They had a small pile of some 1910ish looking stuff and sad looking faces. George quickly jumped in to assess the situation and realized that they weren’t kidding about the clay. The alpha team had reached the layer by ‘halfing’ it down. The layer didn’t get any older than 1900, so George climbed out and we quickly began to fill this one in. It went pretty quick with both teams. After it looked good, and the area restored, we loaded all the tools and bottles from this hole into the trucks and drove via convoy around the corner to split up and look at our finds from both holes. The rain was spitting, but none of us seemed to mind since two of our bottles made the year end with a BANG that no fireworks could match.
Some of the Finds:
OP Dr Simms and Sons Cough Syrup for Pulmonic Disease
OP Jas. & S. Parker’s EAU LUSTRALE Hair Restorative OP Dr Jaynes
2 OP green utility bottles
OP Davis Pain Killer
Green Pine Tree Cordial
Foord Squat soda
a whole bunch of pontiled puffs
a whole bunch of SB druggists
other patent meds
OP umbrella ink
a snap case cone ink
a silver spoon
a splash block
a complete lice comb
and other goodie goodies
Alan inside the alpha team's hole.
George scooping dirt inside the beta team's hole.
Tom and I enjoying dinner.
Yummmmmmm!
Cheers! Heres to a good hole!
Chris fresh out of the alpha team's hole and Alan ready to fill it in.
Doug looking up at the fortification and keepin' dry.
Group shot of the finds.
Chris going through some pottery.
The two bottles that made the year end with a BANG!
An illustration showing the Dr. Simms Cough Syrup.
An advertisement mentioning the Cough Syrup. circa 1850
An illustraion showing the Parker's Hair Restorative. There is no known exact address for JAs Parker, or a date when he was in business.
With a permission lined up in an east coast city between Philadelphia and Baltimore, all 5 (soon to be 6) of our crew had good feelings we would end the year with a BANG! George and I showed up in a particular port city which has very few good holes at about 7:30 AM on Sunday, December 30th 2007. When we pulled into the usual meeting spot, we were greeted by the rest of our ready to dig team: Alan, Doug, and Chris. Long story short...the person who gave us permission was evicted, and thus the permission fell through. We stood around for about 5 minutes and then scrambled to line up a hole to dig. We secured a permission in about 15 minutes on an open lot. With the cold weather at a steady 35 degrees, and the dark grey clouds looming over us, the pit was probed and my shovel went right in. The new hole we planned to nest in for the day turned out to be a slight oval brickliner which turned into a round brick feature. At about 4 feet into the clay, a techno ringtone starts up and Chris answers his cell phone. He hangs up and tells us that his friend Tom (who some of you might know from a particular Christmas Day dig) is going to stop by to see what we are up to. When Tom showed up, we made our predictions about the hole and talked about another permission Tom received 10 minutes prior to his call. Everyone was in agreement that 3 people would focus on this hole and 3 on the other. Doug, Alan, and Chris were the alpha team, and George, Tom, and I were the beta team. After Alan gave George and I a 2way radio, we followed Tom a couple blocks east and quickly arrived at the house. With a few jabs of the probe, and about 20 or 50 scoops of dirt, we had the walls exposed to another slightly oval brick feature. As usual, we threw the dirt out until the buckets were needed. Bucket after bucket, and big rock after big rock (which we call ‘llama nuts’), we were able to get the hole down to the layer which started to show around the edges at about 6 ½ feet. While I’m in the hole, I hear a thunderous sound. When I peaked out, it was a couple of kids on there roller skates (the acoustics in the hole made it sound like the apocalypse). The one juvinile who lived in the house went inside and came out with his mother. She offered hot chocolate, and we quickly accepted her Jamaican hospitality. I scratched around in the layer that was squeezing up on the sides and it seemed to be a TOC (turn of the century) context. I pulled out a few slicks and a druggist and then I started to see the freezing rain pelt off the 170 year old brick inside the hole. I got out and told Georgie to "have fun in the layer, I want my hot chocolate". The freezing rain quickly turned into unfreezing rain and steadily fell at an annoying rate. Tom set up his tripod, I pulled the buckets, and Tom dumped. George said he was in a TOC context that dropped to a pre 1860 layer literally inches below the first layer. While Tom headed to his truck to fetch a headlamp, George pulled out a very rare pontiled cough syrup bottle. He held it in his hands and looked at me with that ‘happy shocked face’. This was great! He handed it up and I handed it to Tom as he walked back, then Tom scurried to secure it in his truck. 8 feet into a hole, its raining, we hit pontils with at least 5 more feet to go, the other hole the alpha team were digging looked really good...WHAT COULD BE BETTER? As Georgie scraped around a little, Chris walked over to see how we were doing. Tom gave Chris his keys and said look in the front seat. Chris came back and knew we were getting into something good. After Chris left, George needed to get a headlamp off the alpha team since all of ours had become inoperative. Before Tom jumped in the hole, the nice lady who offered us the hot cocoa, came out to refill our cups and offer us some dinner. We told her we would take her up on the offer when we are finished. Tom jumped in the hole and started at the layer. I pulled and dumped buckets while George was gone. When George came back, we had a box and bucket full of goodies, but no more of those rare cough syrups. We separated the pottery and wrapped up any good bottle. Then unexpectedly, soaked to the bone and covered in mud, our extremities numb from cold, a pine tree cordial comes up in a bucket warming the cockles of our hearts, this was followed by some heartbreakers, and an aqua OP umbrella (which I wish would have been a real umbrella). The rain turned off for a bit when Tom found the bottom of the hole. He moved the dirt around and found some more heat breakers, pottery, and colored pontiled puffs. The layer seemed to have some early stuff in it like early broken black glass and 1830's pottery. One little area remained in the layer as George and I watched Tom move it around. Suddenly, as if by the hand of God, a very rare hair restorative rolled out. George pulled it out and wrapped it up in a potato chip bag. Tom finished the layer and climbed out of the hole. We quickly started to fill it in. The nice lady came out again asking if we would like some of her homemade pot roast...which we could smell cooking all night. Tom said give us 15 minutes. We cleaned up the alley of trash and filled in the dirt in about a half hour. We smoothed it out and made the backyard look better than before. After our tools, treasure, and goodies were put away, we walked to the backdoor and it quickly opened. Three plates of food, covered in aluminum foil were handed to us complete with plastic utensils and napkins. They invited us in, but we told them it wouldn’t be a good idea since we were covered in mud. We walked over to our vehicles and opened the plates in shock. The plates were piled with more than her pot roast. We had HAM, TURKEY, CHICKEN, POT ROAST, SWEET POTATOES, RICE, CORN, and CRANBERRY SAUCE! This was far most the nicest thing that any digger could receive...pontils and a complete HOLIDAY DINNER!!!! After we devoured the meal we went back over with more bottles for the young man who had shown interest in our archaeologic recovery endeavor, and to give another thanks to the chef. She invited us in and quickly saw why we couldn’t come in. We handed her the bag and thanked her wonderful hospitality. Tom joked around and said we will be back to enjoy some of that ‘Jamaican rum’. She said, "hold on a minute" with a delightful accent, she opened up the liquor cabinet, poured a double shot for each of us, and invited us back anytime. With everything secured in the trucks, bellies full, eyes and throats burning from the rum, we headed back to see how the rest of our team was doing. As we walked back, Alan and Doug were underneath a make shift fortification to keep dry. Doug wasn’t looking so happy, and Alan told us the horrors this hole has produced. We quickly summed up our story from beginning to end complete with pontils and dinner. Chris climbs up the ladder out of the 15 foot hole and stresses how hard this hole was to dig because of the hard compact dry 8 foot clay cap. They had a small pile of some 1910ish looking stuff and sad looking faces. George quickly jumped in to assess the situation and realized that they weren’t kidding about the clay. The alpha team had reached the layer by ‘halfing’ it down. The layer didn’t get any older than 1900, so George climbed out and we quickly began to fill this one in. It went pretty quick with both teams. After it looked good, and the area restored, we loaded all the tools and bottles from this hole into the trucks and drove via convoy around the corner to split up and look at our finds from both holes. The rain was spitting, but none of us seemed to mind since two of our bottles made the year end with a BANG that no fireworks could match.
Some of the Finds:
OP Dr Simms and Sons Cough Syrup for Pulmonic Disease
OP Jas. & S. Parker’s EAU LUSTRALE Hair Restorative OP Dr Jaynes
2 OP green utility bottles
OP Davis Pain Killer
Green Pine Tree Cordial
Foord Squat soda
a whole bunch of pontiled puffs
a whole bunch of SB druggists
other patent meds
OP umbrella ink
a snap case cone ink
a silver spoon
a splash block
a complete lice comb
and other goodie goodies
Alan inside the alpha team's hole.
George scooping dirt inside the beta team's hole.
Tom and I enjoying dinner.
Yummmmmmm!
Cheers! Heres to a good hole!
Chris fresh out of the alpha team's hole and Alan ready to fill it in.
Doug looking up at the fortification and keepin' dry.
Group shot of the finds.
Chris going through some pottery.
The two bottles that made the year end with a BANG!
An illustration showing the Dr. Simms Cough Syrup.
An advertisement mentioning the Cough Syrup. circa 1850
An illustraion showing the Parker's Hair Restorative. There is no known exact address for JAs Parker, or a date when he was in business.
] Im just one of the lucky ones who looks young. How long you been digging for, I hope you havnt stopped for a while? I bet I can handle myself just fine. kiss kiss kiss
