Monday, December 22, 2014

River Bottles of 2014

This past year was a good one for finding old bottles in the rivers as can be seen by the crowd of them gathered atop my stove.  I'm not sure why there were so many this year.  Perhaps it's due to some slowing down on my part, or perhaps the bottles just grew weary of hanging out in the river.  At any rate these old vessels, in my opinion, have far more character than their present-day counterparts.

Most were from my local waterways: Assabet, Concord, Nashua, and Sudbury rivers and Nashoba Brook.  One from further afield was a Nemasket Spring bottle from the Nemasket River.

The field of 20 was whittled down to a lucky 7 by a panel of distinguished judges (Mrs. Trashpaddler and myself) ... 


From the left they are:

Coming in at number 7, a square 'case gin' C.H. Graves and Son, of Boston nicely embossed quart bottle which most likely contained vodka and perhaps dates from 1940.  It was found floating in the Assabet River near the Fort Meadow Brook confluence in Stow on October 25th...

At number 6 is this one-pint side-strapped bottle that most likely contained whiskey.  Only marking is the embossed script "Full Pint" and it perhaps dates to late 1800's.  It has some nice air bubbles in the glass and was found resting on the bottom of the Assabet River in Stow on June 12th...

At number 5 is a cobalt blue one-pint Milk of Magnesia bottle with side-straps dating from perhaps the 1930s.  It was found in the Sudbury River above the Pelham Island Road bridge in Wayland on August 4th...

At number 4 is this amber one pint bottle (sharing the stage with a Simpson's Spring bottle that didn't make the cut) which most likely contained whiskey.  It may date from 1950s and was found in the Concord River near Great Meadows on August 10th...

At number 3 is this eagle embossed half-pint bottle which once contained Calvert whiskey and dates from about 1940.  It was found floating in Nashoba Brook between Warners Pond and Route 2 on November 25th...

At number 2 is this H.P. Hood milk bottle dating from 1931 that was found in the Assabet River's impoundment above the Powdermill Dam in Acton on September 20th.  Photo was before some TLC with Bon-Ami...

And coming in at number 1 is this Twin Maple Farm (Saxonville) Cream Top milk bottle with applied color labeling dating from the 1930s.  It was found sticking out of the riverbank of the Sudbury River (Framingham) just below the Stone Bridge on October 6th.  The applied color label was protected by being in the mud and reads "See your Doctor once each year/See your Dentist every six months/Drink Twin Maple milk every day"...

Well, there they are, the winning 2014 River Bottles all hailing from SuAsCo waters.

For the next few months they'll be privileged to enjoy the view from the windowsill above our kitchen sink where they can look upon the bow of the boat that brought them home...
Lucky dogs!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome finds! I honestly thought I was one of the only paddlers in mass that enjoys picking up trash. Guess not! Very glad I found this blog. Maybe I should start one too! Keep doing what your doing man!

-jeremy

Al said...

Hello Jeremy and thanks, Always good to hear from other paddlers who pick up trash. I'm sure there's room for another blog should you start one. The more the merrier!

George said...

Great selection. Hard to pick a favorite. The cream top milk bottle sure is elegant. My mom has mentioned those bottles and how you could skim the cream off the top for various uses.

Al said...

Hello George, the bottles may reflect a natural progression: milk, vodka, whiskey, then milk of magnesia.

BERNIE said...

Generations of the glass family. Thank You for introducing us to them.

Merry Christmas

Mark Mayall said...

The cream rises to the top...

Peter Floyd said...

good