7/27/03 OK, this one is out of chronological order, but is worth telling. Steve and I had been digging some empty lots. We wandered onto another empty one, probing the back lot line to death. All of a sudden, a very large man and dog starts heading across the property from a neighboring house. "What are you guy's doing", he asks. Luckily Steve was closer. I was already planning my escape. Steve starts to tell him what we do. He didn't make it through three sentences when the guy says, "Go ahead, sounds like fun". Jay is one of the nicest guys you have ever met. One of my favorite parts of digging is the people you meet. He was fun to talk with.

 I had checked the assessor's record, and the house is from 1915. Steve told me not to go by this and pointed out the foundation of the house. It did look old. We found a couple promising spots and decided to dig. We showed Jay the probing methods and where we were going to dig. He assured us it was fine. The tarp came out and shoveling started. The first couple bottles were bunky coffin flasks. Typical of what we were digging in that area. They must have been some heavy drinkers, all the previous pits had 40-50 in there.  Although we did pull out two hutchs the week before. There were lots of large stones in the pit, this made the going very difficult. I thought it looked like a stone liner. All the other pits I have dug have been wood lined. 

    Down about 3' an amber panel comes up with "lida" on the side. Steve hands it up and tells me this could get good. I toss up a broken op aqua base. Steve informs me it was part of an scroll flask. I don't get to "geeked" up. I have seen these shards on top of crown top pits before. My turn in the hole. I am in a corner and it is piled up with stones. Jokingly I tell Steve "You know what is under stones". He replies, "Always the good stuff" I take the stones away and start shoveling. As if by magic, the next shovel full pulls the dirt off of a blue soda. I am staring dumbfound. I tell Steve what's there, and notice the embossing. My heart is pounding right now just telling this story. What a rush. We take some pics and out it comes after being hidden for nearly 150 years. An iron pontil Bebington.&.Co from Chicago. Intact and in fantastic condition. Click on the Bottle Den in the Links below. It is the featured soda of the month. Steve tells me to get out of the hole. 

    First look at Bebington    Dave with Bebington

Steve is down there a couple of minutes and produces another cobalt soda from Racine. A Bliss Celebrated Mineral Water. My jaw drops. This is to good to be true. He shows me the broken lip. Bummer. He tells me it can be fixed. Now the shards are coming out. A total of 4 broken flasks. Two scrolls and three different eagles. After my next turn Lucky gets back in the hole. After cleaning the edges to the bottom the center is all that's left. "Just about done", Steve exclaims. Then he holds up a op medicine we had been standing on. "Oh my god, it has an Indian on it". I take it and clean it up with some water. Indian Houses Tonic, Prepared by Geo. House with an embossed Indian. Get out of the hole Steve. Before he gets out, I take a bunk medicine that was laying there and smash it against the rocks. He thought I broke the Houses bottle, you should have seen the look in his eyes. I am still laughing.  I am down there a little bit and uncover my first scroll flask. The bottom is now done. I am so pumped I tell him I am going to work all corners and bottom again. Good thing. I found an op Osgood's India Cholagague.

Steve w/Bliss and Houses bottle                Clean Houses bottle, what a gem

We are filling in the hole and just smiling. I didn't even mention the op umbrella ink and the other op unembossed goodies that were in there. Any one of the bottles mentioned above would have made for a fantastic dig. To find all of these is truly remarkable.