Why Some of Us Find Antique Bottles Fascinating
A friend of mine once told me that his hobby was collecting bottles. I thought it was mildly interesting, because I had never known anybody who did that earlier, but I could not imagine putting much time into it, because I didn’t know what all was involved. After he took me on what he referred to as a “bottle dig,” however, I soon realized that there was much more to it than I had originally thought.
We began in an old riverbed that was littered with trash and debris. I made a couple of wisecracks about the breathtaking scenery, and he just laughed. He informed me that a riverbed that looked the way that it did was usually a very good sign. Then he started to dig — and dig, and dig, and dig. He said that bottle hunting took some work, and if we wanted to find any antique bottles, we were really going to have to dig deep.
He began to pull out old soda bottles that looked like the kind we used to drink out of when I was a little boy, and I was already fascinated. I saw the old-style Orange Crush bottle and an old Dr Pepper bottle. I was trying to clean them in the pathetic remnant of water that streamed through the bed, and he was still digging away.
He started to pull out antique bottles that looked like they contained some kinda perfume or ointment, and said he recognized them as being from some company that I cannot remember. He knew so much about the history of the bottles that it was like watching an episode of Pawn Stars.
He continued to dig and uncovered some medicine bottles that he said dated back to the 1800s and he said probably contained some kind of painkiller He examined each of the bottles, carefully scraping away bits of mud that covered letters or numbers that were engraved into the glass, and then looked up and laughed, and discussed the bottles’ uses.
When I eventually viewed my watch, we had been out there for more than six hours seeking antique bottles, but it only seemed like a couple of minutes. We called it a day, went and grabbed a bite to eat, and then the real fun started.
He had an entire system for looking up these old antique bottles online and determining precisely where they were from, what they were used for and how much they cost at the time.
We went out to his garage, and he literally had a dozen shelves filled with bottles. We talked into the night about antique bottles, and I really learned a lot that day. It’s funny how you can wake up in the morning not expecting much, and end up having a day that totally blows your mind.
