Yesterday on what promised to be one of the summer's hottest days I got out on the Mighty Merrimack a little after sunrise launching from North Chelmsford, MA. It quickly became obvious that finding shady spots would be my first order of business. Fortunately the river offers many such areas especially where tributaries enter, such as the 'hanging gardens' beneath Middlesex Street on Stony Brook...
Additional shade provided by trees could be found on the river's east bank between Pawtucket Boulevard and Wickasee Island...
Continued hugging the east shore once past the island, and noticed a glass bottle hanging by roots within it from where the riverbank had partially collapsed...
Once pulled down it was found to be an old milk bottle embossed with the name "Lowell Dairy" and the word "Store" on its shoulder and base. After being rinsed out it joined an old medicine bottle found in shallow water nearby...
Also above Wickasee Island were several large rocks equipped with cast-iron loops for boats or perhaps barges to tie onto...
...possibly left from when there were locks by the long gone Wickasee Falls.
Before leaving the river's east shore I was inspired by this message...
One of the few times I ventured out into the middle of the river...
One result of staying close to shore was this...
Once home I searched for information on the old milk bottle...without much luck until running across this article "Chapter 2 Massachusetts Seals on Glass Milk Bottles" by Bill Lockhart, Pete Schulz, and Al Morin with contributions by Bill Blodget. Here I found that the Lowell Dairy bottle found was manufactured in Elmira, NY by the Thatcher Manufacturing Company in 1944. Finding info on Lowell Dairy itself proved more difficult until a mention was found in a 1946 Lowell Directory. Turns out the dairy was owned by Odesseus "Duke" Chiungas who in addition to many other accomplishments was a boyhood friend of Lowell's noted author and native son Jack Kerouac. This in turn led me to find that 13 of Kerouac's books are considered to comprise the "Duluoz Legend" (Duluoz being the surname by which Kerouac referred to himself). A character based upon Odesseus "Duke" Chiungas, "Duke Gringas" appeared in Kerouac's Book of Dreams and Visions of Cody according to this Duluoz Legend Character Key.
The little medicine bottle didn't offer much in the way of markings. Containing only 17 mls, it must have packed quite a punch...perhaps similar to today's 50-mls nip bottles.
No comments:
Post a Comment