iPuntyRod - May 1999

Club News

April Meeting: There were 15 people who attended. Elections of club officers were held and things will remain the same, although Jan Boyer was not in attendance and we don't know if he still wants to be Co-Program Director with Bob Lanpher. Also, Eric Correia wasn't there so we're not sure if he is still Show Organizer.; A photographer and reporter were present. They had contacted Ed Greer about doing an article in the Warwick Beacon / Cranston Herald and he met them there. The article will be available in our library.; Only 11 people are going on the trip to the Sandwich Glass Museum. Ed Greer suggested we tour the local glass blowers on the night of one of our meetings so more people can attend. That's a real good idea. Pam Sroka will check into the times and places.; We received a thank you from the Boy Scout troop that visited us at last month's meeting.

Y2K Show: Although the 2000 show is still nine months away, Steve keeps us informed of the details. There will be 56 sales tables (up 4 from previous years). Because of problems which have risen in recent years, there will be no food available at the show from the kitchen on the premises. There are plenty of fast food places in the area which will deliver and there will be menus for these places available at the show thanks to Pam Sroka. (If next years show is anything remotely like the 1999 show, there won't be time to eat anyway. For those of you who didn't attend the Little Rhody Bottle Club's show last January, you missed a record attendance and record sales for quite a few of the dealers which were set up. More information on next year's show to follow in upcoming months.)

Library: We received two new books. One is the Western Bitters book, a beautiful all color hard cover book, and the second is the newest Kovels Price Guide For Bottles. Bob Lanpher suggested we get the new Applied Color Label Soda book and a price guide for fruit jars, the Red Book Of Fruit Jars #8.
: We also exchange newsletters with other bottle clubs around the country and these are available in our library. Pam has also added a story about diggers which was obtains from a website Carl told her about. Just go to "WHAT A VIEW". I hope it gets you there. The site's full of digging stories, true and not so true, poems, songs, etc. It was a lot of fun.

Surprise Speaker: Pam had spoken to Carl Pratt a week before the meeting and he told her he had gone digging... in St. Thomas! So she asked if he would speak at the meeting.; Carl was invited to St. Thomas by a friend to go digging and diving. He took a bag full of land digging tools and a bag full of scuba diving gear which got there a day after he did.; He went to the Virgin Islands Museum located in Fort Christian"1671" where he saw many artifacts and was told of many bottles which were kept in the basement. The man who told him of the bottles was not the curator so Carl returned the next day to meet with the curator. She didn't feel that he should see them because he had no credentials. And "Who is he?" she asked. (Ed. note: Where does one go to get a degree in digging?) In Port Charles there have problems with divers taking artifacts from over 500 ship wrecks located in the harbor. Removing any artifact from a wreck is illegal there.; After going to the museum, Carl went on a bottle dive with Jethro Johnson, one of the highest paid divers on a particular ship. Carl had to pretend he knew what he was doing because he was used to diving in the shallow water as opposed to deep sea diving. But it was "No problem. It was easy!" he said. Jethro found most of the artifacts but Carl found a wooden ball from a game such as cricket or croquet maybe. (Ahh. A true collectible.); After that, Carl tried his hand at land digging but found the ground so hard he couldn't probe it. He said the landscape is also very hilly and steep. There was certainly no assistance from the locals when he wanted to dig. They like to see the tourists come, then they like to see the tourists leave.; Later, Carl found an empty house that had a trail of conch shells. He figured a bum lived there and had booby trapped the whole place by putting tin cans around so he could hear if anyone was coming. But Carl found no one around and crawled under the house and dug with his bare hands. The bottles he found were probably 30 years old.; Carl's friend sells submarine tickets, so Carl went to where he worked and did some skin diving. He found so many bottles he couldn't comprehend them all. "There were bottles I had never seen before." Unfortunately he couldn't take any of the bottles with him, so he checked them out under water and left them were they were.; On his way back from skin diving, he passed a cemetery that had freshly turned soil, and sticking out of the dirt pile was a gin nip. Machine made, but it was cute.; He did find some other treasures in his stay and it sounds as if he had a really good time. When asked if he would go back he said yes, but it's expensive and it also sounds a little dangerous. Drinking and driving is allowed and they drive on the left side of the road. "Is that because they're drinking?" Pam asked.; Carl did go on one other dive while he was there, where a bunch of them went diving for bottles from a ship. The owner of the ship said the bottles were under the boat so everyone dove in. When they came up empty handed, the owner said he had watched their air bubbles and no one had gone under the boat. That's where the bottles are. They went down again and everyone went off in different directions. While they were down, the owner dove under the boat and came up with a torpedo bottle and a black glass bottle.
: Thanks to Carl for the speech and special thanks to him and his mother for having the club members over while they were in Sandwich.

Classified Ads

Wanted:

RI Bottles of all types. Contact Dave at 401-942-6634 or on the web at: oaklawn@earthlink.net
Do you have RI bottles which are not listed in Antique Bottles Of Rhode Island? Or maybe you have a bottle in a color or size that is not listed in the book? If so, please send the information to me for inclusion in a future revision of the LRBC's bottle book. Proper credit will be given and all information is greatly appreciated. Send by email to: oaklawn@earthlink.net
Toy Marbles. Will pay cash. Please call Jerry Biern at 401-826-3933
Bitters, Pepper Sauce, and Demi Johns always wanted. Call Jan Boyer at 401-539-2051
1/2 gallon spring water bottles with arched slugplates. I have 5, would like more! Call Art at 508-399-6427
The following people are not bottle collectors but are looking for milk bottles from their family's dairy.
- Sam Terzian / Pleasant View Dairy / Whitman, MA. Cal Alice Tavitian at 781-447-5141
- Lodi Dairy / Plymouth, MA. Cal Winthrop Pachard at 617-447-3966
- Homestead Dairy / Erbeck / W. Bridgewater, MA. Call Dick Cogswell at 508-586-6272
- Morton Dairy / Foxboro, MA. Call Laurie Morris at 508-697-0392
- Ritchie Dairy / Virginia. Call Sue Worden at 413-697-5492

For Sale:

Fruit Jars, common to rare. Contact Dave at 401-942-6634 or email at: oaklawn@earthlink.net

Please direct comments or corrections to:
dandrews@littlerhodybottleclub.com

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