Kip was my digging partner. After seeing a few of the bottles I was finding, it took him about two minutes to become hooked. From that point on, we spent our weekends hunting dumps and digging. We later joined forces with Paul and became a bottle force to be reckoned with. We scouted the ghost towns and were always on the lookout for gopher holes with ash and rust. Unfortunately, the dumps disappeared and so did the time we had to search. Our digging daze dwindled in the 70's.
The picture shows one of the last dumps we were able to get into. The bad part is that most of it was underwater.....it continued down more that 15 feet and the water level was about 6 feet. That's why there was still some good spots left.
I remember one day, kip was down about 3 feet into the water and he was reaching in and could feel the bottle. He is trying to describe it.
"It has a blob top!".
"Ok", I thought.
"Wait, it has a shoulder seal and it's pretty big".
Now I'm stumped.
"Wow, it's got writing".
I'"m starting to roll my eyes thinking it's a pretty good hallucination.
"It tapers like a case gin!"
I've decided he's gone mad.
And with a suction sound he pulls it out and it's amazing! We had never seen anything like it. Avaan Hoboken case gin. A classic antique bottle in mint condition.
It's not just the buried treasure that make bottle hunting wonderful, it's the kinship and the good times. Although our paths have gone in separate directions, our love of old bottles has kept us connected.
Thanks for the memories!
