Remembering My Mom

  Bottle digging was an activity my father and mother also participated in. Maybe a year or less after we started searching for places to explore my mom told me and my father she saw a likely spot behind a row of early houses.  That was a great spot.  We probably found 20 or 30 bottles that first day, many from the 1850's.  The next day, all excited, my mom went back with us.  Wouldn't you know it, she found the best bottle in that dump. It was a cobalt blue soda bottle, eight sided, embossed W.P. KNICKER BOCKER SODA WATER 164. 18th St N.Y. 1848, in absolutely pristine condition!  That bottle has the distinction of being the first bottle I ever sold for $100.00, a lot of money to a 13 year old in 1971.
  Over the years I've sold so many bottles and artifacts that I could not even venture a guess as to how many.  The funny part is I have no idea where most of them are now.  I always knew where this bottle was.  The guy who bought it loved it and kept it all those years.  When he dispersed his collection a few years ago he offered it back to me for $700.00 . . . I bought it.
  My mom passed away in 2000 and I miss her but I will always keep this beautiful piece that she recovered from the ground.