A combination of our first ever Visitor's Night and the promise of a great program resulted in a big crowd for March! We counted 86 people on hand to enjoy a super antique bottle presentation. The Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club president, Chuck Parker, and his digging partner, Scott Hendrickson, really put on a great show!

This shot taken by Jack Short, shows the big crowd.

    I didn't know what to expect when I got to the meeting. I know that Scott had requested an 8 (rather than 12) hour day from his boss at U.P.S. I figured the fellows would have just enough time to show up and talk about their hobby. I was amazed at how much stuff they bought to display for us! Scott even had a rustic one-hole outhouse seat on display!

    Chuck displayed his awesome collection of original labeled medicine bottles with original contents. Most of the substances would likely be illegal if not part of an antique bottle collection. Many of the early medicines were embossed and often had a label. The bottles that are dug from a dump or outhouse pit (privy) never have labels. And it is rare that they have contents. This means that labeled bottles with contents are very rare and very valuable indeed! Chances are, if we knew the value of the collection that Chuck displayed at our meeting, it would amaze each of you!

    Scott has been digging for just a few years and he has had some amazing success. I know dozens of the top bottle diggers in America and few have ever dug a rare Kalamazoo "Best Bitters in America," but Scott has... even though it was broken. Scott carefully gathered as many of the pieces he could find and glued it 90% back together. Yes it was shattered, and its value is very little, if anything, but it is a bottle diggers trophy, one that is the envy of all diggers! Remember, this bottle in unbroken perfect condition has sold for as much as $17,000!

    Since our last meeting, two of my bottle digging friends dug a hand blown antique target ball. At the request of my friends, I cannot give out names, but I will explain what a target ball is. A target ball was the early version of a clay pigeon. They were slightly smaller than a softball and usually had a hole in the top. The hole was there so that you could fill the ball with sawdust or pin feathers from a chicken. That was for added effect when the ball was shot by the marksman. In other words, those items were made to be destroyed! This means that they are very rare!

    My friends contacted an advanced collector who has many connections in the antique glass collecting hobby. They offered him 10% of the sale price if he could find a buyer. Well, he did locate an interested buyer in the south and pictures were e-mailed to him. The buyer was very excited about the find and sent out a check right away. On receipt of the check, the target ball was mailed out. The diggers held onto the check until the buyer indicated that he was happy with his purchase.

    They received an e-mail from the buyer stating that he was very pleased! He told my friends that the pictures didn't do it justice! It was far better than he had expected. The friend who found the buyer got his 10% split, which was $1,300! That's right it sold for $13,000 and the two diggers split $5,850! Now that is what I call treasure hunting!

    This goes to show you that bottles are not the only treasure to be found in the old privies! It is Sunday night as I write this and we just rolled our waste container out to the curb side. Monday morning, the garbage truck will come by to empty it. In the 1800's, the homeowner did not have that luxury. That meant that you disposed of your trash anyway you could.

    Many times when probing the backyard of an old house for the outhouse location, you find trash pits that were dug for simply disposing of household trash. Those pits can contain valuable treasures, but often they burned trash in them. That lead to bottles that were melted, twisted and destroyed. Also those pits do not contain the sure evidence that they were privies. That evidence is berry seeds.

    I cannot prove this, but I'd bet the Americans in the 17 and 1800's were much greater berry eaters than we are today. At least at that time their food, like jelly and jams, was not as refined as it is today. Of course, they were not! They were homemade! The only things that survived as the food traveled through the digestive tract was the seeds and, surprisingly enough, many pills!

    So, the digger will look for seed layers. In one of the past newsletters, I mentioned that I gave a bottle digging talk to the youth group at the church where we are members. The leader of this youth group was also the science teacher at the Otsego High School. After my presentation, he asked me if I would gather up some of the seeds from my next dig and bring some to him. I did just that, and in the classroom he was able to sprout some raspberry seedlings! These seeds we were able to date to the 1870's based on the bottles that were found!

    What about the pills that I mentioned? No, we do not find pills, but I do know that they did then and many now still do pass undissolved though the system! The Kalamazoo Upjohn Company was the first to come up with medications in pill form that were friable. That meant that they would be broken down and be used in the body, instead of passing on through. I read an article about a company that is involved in the Port-A-John business and he says that many pills today pass through the system as useless!

    So, what are the other treasures found by bottle diggers and often discarded by them as useless? One of my friends saved the little trinkets that he found and sold them to me for nearly nothing. He had tunnel vision! If it wasn't a bottle, he saw no value in it. I am sure he figured I was a real nut, but he was wrong! I had two of the greatest teachers any bottle collector could have! Those teachers are Ernie Lawson and Jack Short.

    On several occasions that digger brought in shoe boxes of items that he would have otherwise tossed back into the privy, but he knew someone who would pay from ten to twenty bucks for a box of that junk. As a result, I have a nice collection of Civil War era clay smoking pipes, carved bone chest pieces, antique medical syringes, bone tooth brushes, bone shaving brushes, frozen Charlotte dolls, marbles, and doll parts.

    One of the doll heads that was part of a ten dollar box was from Germany. The eyes were missing, indicating that it had opening and closing eyes. Other wise, the bisque doll head was in perfect condition--- not one chip or crack! I took some photos of her, then put together an e-Bay auction where the head sold to a doll restorer for $350! That doll head was part of a doll that, when completed, had a value of $1,300!

    At the meeting, and at the close of their presentation, my friend Chuck Parker made a fitting tribute to our good friends, Ernie Lawson and Jack Short, the founders and honorary lifetime members, of the Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club. Chuck rightly stated that if it wasn't for these two guys he wouldn't have been there at our meeting. Thank you, Chuck and Scott for a great presentation! And also thanks to you Jack and Ernie! All of you are a very important part to this guy's life experience and each of you are very dear to me!

    This is a first for our club. My concern is that we don't spill stuff on the floor and, if we do, we need to make sure things get cleaned up. The Community Center is pretty strict about that. I guess that is a good thing because it is a very nice place to have our meetings.

    The board meeting was rescheduled so I couldn't get many of the details for the newsletter ahead of time. So President Mike Walker e-mailed me some things to mention. One of the things he asked me to tell you is to bring something that goes with pizza. I sent a letter to Mike to ask him to explain that. I know that a red checked tablecloth and wine bottle with a melted candle in it goes well.

    My guess is that Mike is talking about other food, like chips, cookies, veggies & dip etc. I have a feeling you might want to bring your own anchovies.

    My favorite pizza parlor is Bimbo's Pizza in downtown Kalamazoo. They have the best pizza but they don't make $5.00 pizzas. Good quality is going to cost you something more. They make everything themselves from scratch, including their sausage!

    The last time I was in Bimbo's, I told the waitress that someday I was going to get enough courage to order anchovies. Frankly, I could not say that I had ever seen one.

    She told me that she would put one on my pizza. I always thought they would look like little fish. I remember hearing someone say, "I don't want to look at my pizza and see something looking back!"

    Actually it was pretty good; a little salty, but I like salty. It tasted like smoked herring. When my grandfather owned the Michigan Cottage Cheese Company, they produced a host of great products. They made macaroni and potato salads, Jell-O salads, baked beans, butter, coleslaw, etc. Because the company had well-established routes ranging from Chicago to Detroit with refrigerated trucks, they picked up other products to distribute. They were one of the first to offer oven ready pre-made pizza in the stores! I remember going on the route with my dad and he would take along a portable electric pizza oven. We would setup in one of the store aisles and pass out pizza samples.

    What great memories I have of those days! For lunch, out on the cheese route, Dad kept some wooden spoons and we would enjoy fresh cottage cheese. My favorite was the green carton. When my stepfather reads this, he will know right away what cheese that is. The blue carton is Old Fashioned Small Curd, the white carton is Old Fashioned Large Curd, the green carton is Old Fashioned Small Curd with Chives. I like to make up a big bowl of small curd with fresh chives for the spring hunt's potluck.

My waxed carton collection from the sample size up to the big 10 pounder! I don't have the rare green carton.

    One of the products that I liked was their smoked herring. I think they were called 'Blind Robins.' Anyway, somewhere in the U.S., some folks got sick and I believe some even died from botulism poisoning after eating smoked herring. I'm pretty sure that the tainted food wasn't coming from the same source as our smoked herring. Nonetheless, my grandfather had someone use a backhoe and dig a big hole at his farm, where they buried a ton of smoked herring!

    The same thing happened to cranberries in the mid 60's. I don't know the cause of the problem and I could only find it mentioned on the Internet without details. But people were scared to eat cranberries because they were making people sick, I guess. Once again the backhoe went to work and a million cranberries were buried! That scare nearly destroyed the cranberry industry. Apparently, that also happened in 1953.

Where was I? Oh, yes! Pizza party at this next meeting! The club furnishes the pizza and drinks. It should be a great time!

    was a huge success! Connie sent me the meeting notes and, under the title "New Members and Guests,' she listed: Wayne Marvin of Kalamazoo, Bill Drake of Kalamazoo, Art Miller from Richland, Bill Struble from Richland, Randy Phillips of Schoolcraft, Dick Loubeck, Tom ?? From Parchment, Dave and Doris Arndt from Grand Ledge, Eric from Hillsdale, Katie Askin from Grand Rapids, and our special guest speakers, Chuck Parker and Scott Hendrickson.

    I'm still waiting for my 'new member update list' from our membership treasurer and vice president, John Dudley, so I am not sure which of these folks are new members, but we welcome you all!

    We understand Bob MacDougall is having back surgery. Man, we sure miss you, Bob! That 100 mile trip to the meeting is not good with a bad back, especially when you need to drive that far back again.

    Dennis Robinson had another operation and Gene Carruthers is going under the knife soon.

    Linda Randolph has had a terrible time of it. She went in for knee replacement surgery at a Grand Rapids hospital and, shortly after that, she developed a staph infection and the new knee had to be removed. She remained on drugs to fight the infection and, when they were sure it was licked, another knee was put in. With the odds of lightning striking twice in the same location, the staph infection came back! Now Linda has no knee at all, just a spacer and she cannot have surgery again until July!

JEWELRY FINDS

1. Antique Oriental Pendant                                                                   By: Mike Walker

2. Cute Teddybear Pendant                                                                 By: Jerry Lipscomb

Our winner was Mike Walker with his ancient Oriental pendant decorated with 3 Geisha Girls.

COIN FINDS

1. 1899 V Nickel                                                                                       By: John Corbin

2. 1962-D Silver Dime                                                                               By: Mike Walker

3. 1865 U.S. 2¢ Piece                                                                         By: John Assenmacher

    John Assenmacher was our big winner with his 1865 two cent piece.

    Hey, you folks who follow the club newsletters on the Internet in the south. Do you think we have some mental health issues in our club? That "V" nickel was a water hunting find. This is Michigan and this find was made in late February or early March! This guy had to be dodging pack ice! Boy oh boy, John has the fever to find gold rings real bad!

1.Three Track Medals "same hole"                                                         By: Tim Peterson

    A week or two after our last meeting I received a phone call from an excited Tim Peterson. Tim was the winner in our Token Fob And Badge Category for March. He found three track medals in his own driveway. He decided to look into the history of his house. The track medals were dated from three different events held in the year 1950. The owners of that house, at that time, were named Green. Tim went to the library and found the records for the Michigan State High Athletic Association (I think that is what M.S.H.A.A. stands for) And sure enough there was a Green who competed in all three of these track and field events. The Greens' owned the house for 50 years from 1942 to 1992. Tim doesn't do the Internet thing, so somehow the library was able to learn that this young track star who is now in his 80's, is still alive and they even helped Tim get a phone number! When Tim contacted me he was so excited!

    "Al, I just had to tell someone! He is on his way here right now to get his medals!"

    My father would be about the same age as this man, if he were still alive, and I just thought about how excited I would be if Dad was reunited with something like this. Money could not buy something like this. Returning things can be the better half of the joy of finding treasure.

    Tim also found out that the track star's father, the senior Green, worked as a mail carrier, which was the job that Tim had been doing for many years!

    Also, I might mention that Frank Colletti did a big write-up about our club in his Civic Patrol column, which is in the May issue of Lost Treasure Mag.

MOST UNUSUAL FINDS

1.Wm.Gilbert Mantel Clock Face                                                    By: Jerry Lipscomb

2. 1800's Crotal Bell                                                                   By: John Assenmacher

3. Boncilla Compact Cover                                                                 By: Mike Walker

Our winner was John Assenmacher with a beautiful crotal bell. Mike Walker did some research on his face powder cap. The company was called the Boncilla Company. It was located in Indianapolis in the 1920's. Some of their products were Cold Cream, Vanishing Cream, and Face Powder.

Some of the advertising slogans were: "Boncilla Beautifier, keeps wrinkles away."

"A woman is only as old as her complexion"

"At 30 every woman reaches a crossroad, will she develop or merely age?"

MISCELLANEOUS

1. 1851 Large Cent Reverse Stamp                                                           By: Billy Knapp

2. Silver Mexican Cigar Lighter                                                           By: Brian Matecum

3. Masonic Member Coin                                                                        By: Ron Osburne

4. Man's Fossil Watch                                                                           By: Anna Matecum

Ron Osborne was our winner with his Masonic member's coin. The coin was dated when the member entered the Masons. In this case the coin is dated 1914.

The spring hunt comes up before the May meeting this year! This means you better get your hunt fee paid at the April meeting! The hunt is on May 18th and the hunt fee for both hunts is only $35.00. This year the hunt is at Tom and Jackie Latterner's this spring. That will make it more central to the Kalamazoo area.

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING APRIL 15th! Meeting starts at 7:00