Monday, April 17, 2006
The Secret History
I'm in the process of digging up my backyard & I routinely come across all manner of items long buried in that soil. Primarily I find chunks of tar & pieces of broken glass, & I've found a bullet & a knife buried in my back lot, but yesterday I came across a tiny green bottle for Red Dragon Seltzer (click here to see an identical bottle). The bottle is tiny, which is probably the only thing that saved it from destruction over the years. I really wanted to be an archaeologist when I was a kid, so maybe this kind of thing is more appealing to me than to others, but I can't help but get excited over little secrets like this that the house slowly yields (like the silverware I found hidden under the floor when I ripped up the carpeting & removed a metal patch from the floor). Anyone else find anything worthwhile?
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10 comments:
I agree it's really interesting what you find in these old houses.
Strangest I've found was a wallet hidden on top of the exposed heating duct (empty except for expired license--bummer!).
There are a bunch of old bottles I found in the crawlspace that I still need to retrieve and examine more closely. I'm hoping some might be from the bottling company I've been told used to operate at 2nd & Parker (building now owned by Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute).
Visit to the Building Museum has strongly renewed my interest in researching my house and our little street!
I've found old soda bottles in my yard as well as some sort of machine parts. The highlight for me was a doctor's appointment book, some pictures, and a Civil War Army Commission which I found up in the attic space. They were in very bad shape as there had been leaks in the roof prior to us replacing it but it was still pretty cool to find.
This isn't nearly as interesting as the cool stuff folks are finding in their houses and yards, but a store like this would be a great addition to H Street.
http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2006/04/17/story3.html
Sorry about the link. For some reason it doesn't all appear in this posting. Here's another try, but I think I get the same result.
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2006/04/17/story3.html?surround=etf
That is cool what you found in your garden inked--sounds like the little green bottle is particularly valuable.
And as for the garden store, boy would that be cool. Wonder what it will take to get him to open on H and not Georgia or Hyattsville. I went the website http://www.gardendistrict.biz, it has an email address for him: joecarmack@gardendistrict.biz
Maybe we should all email him to encourage him to come to H street!
BTW, Bob Sonderman, who lives on 7th St. NE is a National Park Service Archaeologist. He came and fgave a great talk to my cub scouts on bottles etc. that can be found in this area (especially in former privy sites). The kids were totally fascinated. I'm sure he would love to see your find, Inked.
You wouldn't happen to be the person listing dirt for free in the Florida Ave NE area on Craigslist would you??
Now, I can't wait to start digging around in our back yard...regrettably our front patch is almost entirely concrete slab.
Definitely not me. I need all my dirt.
my wife found a man's ring (that may actually be gold) when planting our new boxwoods yesterday.
We have find milk bottles, a green soda bottle, the original brick that was used as a sidewalk (we think), and various street treasures.
It is really neat finding all that stuff that has been buried for so many years!
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