|
 Day #4
Returning to the dig site on the last day of November, 2007, I was
certainly excited to get something good after our last spell of good luck.
Jim was not present, as he was out of town for a business meeting of some
sort - something he had warned us of previously. Kyle was meeting me at
the site shortly afterwards.
Upon arrival, however, I was greeted with a not-so-pleasant
sight! Someone had been digging whilst Kyle & I were away for the past few
days! I rechecked my mentality that it would be better for someone to
retrieve the bottles and make good use of them than no one at all, and
found it still working just fine. Still, it kind of bothered me someone
had been there and was taking home artifacts without us knowing about
them. I set to work digging where I had dug the first day - just out and
around in a big circle in the yard. Only around 6-8" deep. A few ginger
beer shards, R. Taylor bases, etc, and R. Taylor and G.E.Murdock quart
blob bases, galore - still glass like you wouldn't believe, though by this
point, we had obviously become desensitized by mere shards from Strathroy
bottles - we wanted something more! We wanted intact G.E.Murdoch pieces
and R. Taylor ginger beers!
Kyle
showed up a couple hours after I arrived, and I showed him the digging. He
shrugged it off as probably being Jim, and I realized that this probably
was the case, I just hadn't thought of it. We decided to grab something to
eat, as it was around lunch, and perhaps hit the
library before continuing our dig.
The maps at the library showed us a number of things we didn't know about.
First off - the relatively small lots we were digging in were previously
much larger - the full length between the road they currently faced, and
the laneway which ran behind them. Someone, around the 1930s or so, had
subdivided the lots, and built a house along the backs of two of them, and
much later (probably the 1970s), the iconic local bar, Leo's, was built
covering the entire back half of the "soda shop" lot. Who knows what was
turned up then? Either way - we now knew why we were unable to find any
trash pits - they probably would have been in the backs of the lots, and
thus were now covered up!
When we returned, with knowledge from the library of enlightenment, Kyle
began digging around the back wall of the addition, towards the steps, and
I continued digging where I was - also towards the back steps. Jim showed
up, again, a couple hours later, but we had nothing to show but a bunch
more R. Taylor ginger beer shards. It turned out that it had been Jim
digging behind the steps the day previously, and he had turned up an
intact blob-top J. Tune out of
London!
Although it had a lip chip, and was a fairly common bottle, neither Kyle
nor I had ever dug one, so when he offered it to one of us, we were
excited to say the least! He mentioned that it had come from a seemingly
deeper than ordinary layer, and that he thought we should try and hack
into it elsewhere - see if anything came out. I tried digging deeper where
I was behind the steps, but little could be found. Jim joined Kyle behind
the addition, and both of them began to dig inwards, when I decided to
take
 it
upon myself to remove some more of those floor boards.
Around the time Kyle & I both began digging after returning, we noticed
something unusual. Parked beside my car in the Leo's parking lot next
door, now vacant as the business was obviously shut down, was a large
white Ford pickup, a simple trailer behind it, laden down with at least a
tonne of heavy duty galvanized steel fencing - the stuff you see around
construction sites. Our reality of digging a soda works for the first (and
probably last time) in our lives was being threatened by the conflicting
reality of the impending demolition and construction taking place within
mere days. Jim, being an amiable fellow, was conversing with the fellows,
and sure enough, they were slated to erect the fence to be used for the
prevention of trespassing during the construction over the course of the
next few weeks. As we were digging, they began to set it up!
Doing my best to
manoeuvre the saw in such a way as would not
cause the building to collapse around (or on top of) me, I began hack away
boards from that floor so Jim & Kyle could dig beneath. I managed to
remove an area about 6' in from the side wall, and 5' from the back wall -
plenty of room to comfortably stand and throw dirt. After Kyle & I worked
on moving the concrete back step more efficiently by breaking it apart
with a 12 lb sledge I had brought, Jim & I began digging where the step
had been. I encountered more metal than I could possibly have reasoned
with, so I decided to check out the back end of the far lot. The presence
of a driveway there made finding the trash pits from that far house still
plausible where the other lots were covered by the house and Leo's.
Probing around in that lot, all I could find was a 1950s trash pit,
and, strangely enough, a 3' deep pit with a lot of iron, broken china, and
1950s newspaper fragments! Who knows how they could have been so well
preserved, but, regardless, they were unsalvageable due to the extent of
decay which had occurred. The owner of the house which had been built
across the backyard showed up, and gave me permission to dig all I'd like,
though he claimed little could be found short of small shards (many of
which he had found whilst gardening!). While talking to him about some
insulators he had at home, Kyle came running up exasperated. "Jim hit into
that deep pocket!" he reported, and piqued my interest thoroughly.
I ran to see what Jim had turned up, and was surprised... but not too
surprised. 4 large shards from an even larger yellow earthenware crock
were lying atop his pile of dirt, and 3 bottles with their necks broken
off were scattered about - one J. Tune, and two R. Taylor quarts. I was
excited still, to see that something had come out, and from so deep none
the less (Jim was digging easily 2 1/2' down), where we had previously
thought there was nothing, but, again... where was the intact stuff? There
had to be something without the very top knocked off in this yard! Jim
asked if we had dug this deep where we had dug the amber quarts out a few
days before, and, having no answer for him, I set out to find out.
Kyle and Jim were both having little luck by the time I
reopened the hole we had dug previously from all the tailings of our dig
beneath the house. Jim had hit the edge of his deep pocket, which didn't
seem to go any farther than the rear addition itself, and Kyle hadn't been
able to find it where he was digging farther along the back wall, despite
being at the same depth. Almost immediately after digging slightly deeper
than either of us had over beside the side, I hit the neck from a bottle.
Obviously broken in the same way as all the others, but again, we didn't
 know this was here before! Unearthing the bottle, and in the process, a
large ginger beer shard showing the “. TAYLOR / MARK” part of the ink
stamp, I was vis-a-vis with a lovely R. Taylor quart, obviously a blob-top
by the thick glass and sloped shoulders. I also unearthed part of some
kind of Soda Water Works quart from Sarnia, and pieces from several R.
Taylor split (half pint) sodas in clear. I continued to dig sideways until
I hit the cistern Kyle had uncovered previously in one direction, and some
kind of septic tank or another cistern, much closer to the house, in the
other. I was digging a small channel in between them, and the digging
became harder and harder, as I realized that I had no place to throw my
dirt. I had to rely on my arms to project the humus over 8' from my hole
into the backyard where Jim & I had been digging several days before. All
manner of interesting shards popped out of this layer, including a large
portion of the front face of an awesome amber J. Tune quart from London,
and the bottom half of a killer green/yellow green R. Taylor quart!
Another base segment from yet another amber Wilson quart from Toronto,
with the squirrel on it emerged, as well. All the usual stuff - several
ginger beer shards, lots of those clear, straight embossed G.E. Murdoch
pieces, and still quite a few more R. Taylor half pint splits.
Jim reported that he had to head home for dinner shortly after I hit a
series of clay drainage tiles, and was having difficulty removing
them from all the shards buried around. We said our goodbyes, and agreed
to meet up the next day (Sunday) for another dig, as we were obviously not
done yet. As Jim departed, Kyle & I agreed to dig a tad longer - at least
until it became closer to dark out. I decided to head over to the other
side of the hedge along the south side of the yard, and dig in between the
Soda Shop house, and the middle of the three houses, while Kyle agreed to
continue in the hole I was digging.
As I began to dig a test hole, good prospects greeted me! Glass, glass
galore! It continued to emerge from the dark soil. In between bricks,
bricks galore, of course, but none the less, the trash layer continued
into the side yard! I didn't make my test hole too deep before Kyle, a
serious tone in his voice, reported from behind a wall of dirt that he may
have an R. Taylor almost intact. I was excited (what else is new?), and he
continued to give me a streaming report of the condition of the piece as
he unearthed more of it. "It's an R. Taylor alright!" he called out in
dampened form from beneath the ground. Then a series of conflicting
reports regarding the condition of the piece followed, while I was still
removing crown tops, quart bases, and seltzer shards from the ground. The
sky was darkening severely before Kyle grabbed the camera, snapped a few
photos of the piece, and suddenly emerged from the hole with an R. Taylor
ginger beer with just the very top broken off - part of the lip even
remained! And the transfer was immaculate!
Shortly after Kyle liberated this one startling find, we decided it had
simply become too dark to see where we were digging any more, and that we
would call it a day. The following morning, the site would still be
waiting, and having survived burial for countless other sun falls and
rises, the bottles we knew were waiting would, as well. So, we did what
any sensible bottle diggers on a real spree would do - went home to dream
of amber quart sodas and ginger beers, toss and turn for several hours
unable to sleep, and then jump out of bed in the morning eager to dig,
skip the shower, choke down some breakfast, and head back to the site.
Day #5
All that night, I tossed and turned, unable to sleep due to my vibrant
dreams of amber quart sodas and ginger beers. When the morning light
finally came... I continued to sleep. My alarm, matter-of-factly, didn't
go off until
8 AM,
a shameful tardiness for any true digger, in such a position, to wear.
When it finally did ring, I jumped out of bed, threw my digging clothes on
(noting that the hole in the left knee of my jeans had increased in size
dramatically), skipped the shower, and headed straight to the cafeteria in
my residence to eat. I choked down the eggs, sausage, and French toast,
unable to taste it properly - my mind too engrossed with thoughts of what
could come out of the ground within a few hours. I made good time of the
breakfast, and headed to the parking lot to clean yet another fresh layer
of snow off my car. I noted the beauty and perfect symmetry of the
especially light and fluffy snow, and reflected on how great it feels to
know you're going digging in weather which prohibits it. Snow, equates to
frozen ground, which equates to no digging for a long time... but not this
day. No, this was our day... as had been the last 4.
I arrived at the site, the first one there, and began digging. I had
barely had a chance to remove much dirt from the hole, when I hit a small,
clear base emerging from the dirt reading "R-T" in clear, bold prismatic
embossing. Digging gently, and removing the piece, I was very pleased to
be holding 80% of an R. Taylor half pint soda - the most of one we had
recovered yet - broken off just above the shoulder. I set the piece aside,
and continued to dig. Large Taylor and Murdock quart sized chunks, as well
as the occasional pint R. Taylor shard emerged, including one or two R.
Taylor pints with just the tops knocked off. The spot where Kyle had
removed the ginger beer the day before was still plainly visible, but
digging in that direction was nearly impossible due to the undermining
situation. At this point, we were digging right underneath where the thick
hedge running alongside the back yard was located. I attempted to clear
away some of the dirt at the roots of the hedge, but instead of progress
in digging that direction, all I was rewarded with was my first ever
intact Pilgrim Bros bottle out of Hamilton - this one a clear,
base-embossed pint crown top piece. Ultimately, I gave up on digging in
the direction of the hedge, and worked my way away from the house,
alongside the 1950s-bottle-filled cistern Kyle had found previously.
Kyle
arrived after another half an hour of digging nothing but shards, and
brought unusual news. "Your dad is here!" he exclaimed excitedly. I was
confused, as my father had no real interest in digging bottles previously,
he was a man of interest purely in insulators - why he would show up at a
bottle dig with no probability of finding insulators whatsoever? I wasn't
about to complain, though, and greeted him. He said he had nothing better
to do, and had decided to stop by to see this place and what it was all
about. My mother had tried for years to get my father to collect anything,
bottles included, and I had succeeded
 in
piquing his interest in not one, but two collectibles (bottles and
insulators) without investing any real effort!
I continued to dig in the large hole I had opened, away from
the house, while my father & Kyle set to work on the opposite side of the
hedge, in between the soda works, and its neighbour. Around the time I
began to notice an unusual concentration of shards in the hole I was
working on, my dad and Kyle both announced they appeared to have something
intact. My father, working on his base, concluded that it was in fact
broken, but it was a substantial shard from a G. E. Murdock quart, and any
one of us could have mistaken it as intact. Kyle, however, continued to
work on his quart crown top soda. A chip removing part of the upper ring
of the crown top was visible, but that was it. Kyle remained silent from
where I could hear, until suddenly he announced that he had found an
intact J. Tune quart crown top soda from London - the same as the one Jim
had found in the basement, except this piece was an unusual greenish aqua
colour - very similar to many European-made bottles from the era. We were
all excited at the prospects of intact bottles emerging from this area,
especially having found Kyle's R. Taylor ginger beer with just the top
knocked off the day before. I continued to eagerly shovel dirt onto the
end of my shovel, as I prefer to not have tailing from the sides of the
hole backfill where I am trying to watch for shards, and from off to the
left where I had nearly given up digging, I pulled a shovel full of loose,
orangey-coloured dirt with the outline of a half-pint split soda. Grabbing
the bottle, and examining it, my heart skipped a beat in reading "R.
TAYLOR / TRADE MARK / STRATHROY" in bold, clear embossing, from around
that tell-tale artistry of a horse jumping through a horseshoe that makes
R. Taylor so famous. Examining the piece, all I can find wrong with it is
a lip chip removing half of the upper ring of its crown top. The best
example we had recovered yet, even better than that from earlier in the
day! I showed my Dad and Kyle, who fondled the piece and made note of the
incredible prospects for more intact bottles. Around this time, Jim showed
up, and joined in the digging on the far side of the hedge.
After removing several shovelfuls of dirt from the hole, I
continued to dig away from the house, and to notice the sheer
concentration of shards, as well as the unusual depth to which the pieces
ran. There was quite literally no dirt in some areas - just 6 to 10 inches
of bottles shards stacked on top of one another. It was difficult digging,
and it required leverage from below the vein, usually in the virgin clay
layer, to remove such a number of shards. Jim reported that he was
encountering the same layer where he was digging, but at a shallower
depth, and directly beside and beneath the sidewalk running along the
neighbour's house. Kyle began to dig towards the sidewalk in an effort to
locate the same vein, and also encountered the shards. Meanwhile, my
father had located a hutch soda base in his hole, and we all agreed that
it appeared to be intact. As he worked on the piece with the trowel he had
brought, more and more slowly came into view, until he was able to pry it
loose... only to find its top knocked off. However, the bottle was an
unusual find, being probably the farthest from home of any of the shards
we had found. "TOSSEL & SON / NIAGARA FALLS, ONT" it read in bold, 1880s
embossing, and it still had the gravitating stopper tucked into the neck.
After pulling that piece out, he decided all the traffic in that short
stretch of path, about 8' long, where Kyle, him and Jim were all digging,
had become too congested, and had moved farther down the path, to beside
the approximate middle of the soda works house, and had begun digging. He
reported to us finding more glass shards, though nothing in the sort of
concentration we had been finding.
I continued to dig (or try to, anyways) the deep pocket of
pure shards, and through gentle leverage of the soil beneath the vein,
sent a land slide of pure shards, there being no dirt present to hold them
together, into the hole. My heart began pounding, as this slide had
revealed both a top, and a bottom, of two separate bottles, peering out
from the shards, and both appeared to be more-or-less intact (though the
top
was a crown, and had visible chipping around the lip). I levered a few
more shovelfuls of shards from the vein, and then knelt into the hole to
retrieve them. The base that was visible protruded father than the top, so
I went for it first. Out of the ground slid a hutch soda, with the stopper
still inside. "M & K / WINDSOR / ONT" read the green-aqua coloured glass,
and examining the piece, I was unable to find any damage whatsoever. I
excitedly showed Kyle only the second intact and close to mint condition
hutch soda to emerge from the entire 5 days of digging thus far, and an
Ontario piece none the less! I said I had another piece showing, and,
placing the hutch beside the other bottles found so far, I knelt again to
retrieve the top. Gently sliding the bottle from its glassy grave, I was
pleased to see it emerge complete, even if a large portion of the top ring
on the lip was missing, but when I spotted the embossing, I knew this
discovery was something important. " G.E.MURDOCK / STRATHROY" was all it
said, embossing in an oval slug plate on the front, and with no emblem. It
turns out, this crown top pint soda is the most intact example known to
exist by any of the diggers in our circle, with Jim Butler in possession
of the only other known example - it being cracked in half at the shoulder
and re-glued. I was so excited by the find that I had to sit and gaze at
it for a moment before resuming the dig.
Shortly after my pair of successive finds, Kyle had worked right up to the
edge of the sidewalk, and was just about to begin digging beneath it, when
he decided to clear some of the metal scrap out of the hole, in an effort
to make it easier to dig. A large barrel rung jutted into the side of his
hole from beneath the sidewalk's edge - only about one third of it
visible. He announced that he had a good feeling about whatever lay behind
this barrel rung, and began to tug.
I am sad to report that I wasn't standing
above ground level when it happened, but I'm sure if you ask either Jim,
my father, or Kyle, any one of them would tell you it happened in slow
motion. As Kyle pulled the barrel rung from the dirt out slid countless
glass shards, along with a completely, 100% intact, J. TUNE & SON ginger
beer bottle. This one was even complete with the original stopper and
metal
clasps still attached!
Kyle grabbed the bottle and began to gasp and sigh and grunt with the
sheer excitement of having dug his first ever intact ginger beer... and
with the number of broken examples around, it appeared he wouldn't have
the chance to pull any more out in such grand condition. The only damage
to the piece appeared to be a pair of calcified cracks, one in the front,
and one in the back, but easily bleached out a bit with some acid soaking.
Shortly after, Kyle also emerged from this very hole with an R. Taylor
seltzer bottle with just the top knocked off. As of now, each one of us
had an almost intact example of this lovely Strathroy seltzer (though Jim
already owned an impressive selection of local seltzers).
All the while, my father had continued to dig,
right through the adverse conditions known to bottle collectors as
"finding only broke stuff".
And then, quite suddenly, a bottle edge was poking into his
hole. "I think I've got something intact!" he called to us, and Kyle ran
over to investigate. Sure enough, Kyle verified, he appeared to have
another quart soda emerging into daylight for the first time in nearly a
century. He continued to excavate the bottle until he was able to gently
tug it free. I was able to climb out of my hole, grab the camera, and take
a photo just as he first removed the bottle. Another "J. TUNE & SON" crown
top quart soda was liberated, and soon to be added to someone's
collection. We were all impressed that my dad had found an intact bottle
in such adverse conditions, especially on his first real dig... so imagine
our surprise when, within a minute, he reported yet another intact bottle
had appeared in his hole. Kyle verified again, and, this time, I didn't
bother to go check it out, as I was too busy concentrating on the deep
vein again. Once again, my father emerged from the hole holding another
intact J. TUNE & SON quart crown top soda out of London - these two must
have been
 within
inches of each other. Perhaps a sign of things to come, we all hoped. We
continued to hope, and when my father indicated a third bottle appeared to
be intact, we were in sheer disbelief! So few bottles had emerged the
entire time intact, and my dad, on his first dig, had found almost as many
in one dig, as we had all collectively found in 4 others! However, when he
pulled this third example from the ground, he was saddened to report that
this one had the top knocked off like so many of the other bottles we had
found also did. 2 other quart J. Tunes also emerged with their tops
knocked off from my father's excavating, before I decided to go over and
join him. Jim & I had tunnelled into each other, as a land bridge of hedge
roots had formed between the two holes. I had stopped finding anything but
lots of shards, including more from R. Taylor and Farr & Sharpe ginger
beers, and decided to go see where else some work could be done. Kyle &
Jim were only finding shards at this point, so I decided to go help my dad
out, as did Kyle. I opened up a hole slightly closer to the front of the
house, and Kyle opened one right near its front.
Shortly after beginning this hole, I realized that I had to leave to pick
up my girlfriend from work. Naturally, I pushed the time limit to its
maximum, watched my father pull out a dark olive green European soda
bottle with no embossing, and an R. Taylor quart with the top knocked off,
and then had to go.
Apparently, as the story goes, after I left little else came out of the
ground... except one important piece! Jim had uncovered yet another R.
Taylor ginger beer, with just the top knocked off, while digging in the
pure shards layer next to the sidewalk. Now each of us had one example
with just the very top knocked off - mine from the basement, Kyle's from
the hole next to the rear addition, and Jim's from in between the
buildings, plus the example Kyle had found in two large pieces with the
top knocked off, in the backyard. Perhaps more could be pulled out?
Our spirits remained high, and Kyle, Jim, & my
dad all departed not too long after I did. Everyone agreed to meet up
again the next morning for a third consecutive day of digging. Perhaps
tomorrow would reveal a couple more quality pieces! |
