A Question Or Three For Paul

[kbobam]

With apologies to any Pauls out there who aren't "idigjars".

Sorry to suddenly pick on you, but I've been wondering about

a few things for a while now and no one else has asked about them.

You seem like a particularly nice person, so you probably won't mind.

What are these jars you 'dig'?

Would you post some photos here, or direct us to where you do?

Are you literally dig-digging them or dig-enjoying them, or both?

I guess all our friends here like marbles in one way or another.

It would be interesting to hear what their other interests are.

Right now I'm mostly thinking about things which are somewhat

related. Like jars, or bottles in my case. Although in the

'Laid-back Lounge' I'm sure any category would be welcome.

We've had some non-marble Akro Agate posts in the past,

although it's been a while. Let's bring these things back! ( :

[idigjars]

Hello Kbobam. I don't feel picked on and I am happy to oblige your questions about my user name.

I collected canning/fruit jars since I was a teenager, I turned 60 this year. I was also a privy digger since about 1989. You know those places that were used as outdoor toilets, privies? lol

Before you walk away from your computer in disgust let me tell you that I only dig privies from homes built before 1900.

After a hundred plus years of water filtering through the ground it's now just rich dirt. Back then folks didn't have garbage pickup so all their household trash, refuse, BOTTLES, were also thrown in those holes. I've found all kinds of interesting items and some MARBLES also. Most every home built before 1900 had at least one privy in their backyard. On the east coast they had modern type sewage in the big cities as early as the 1880's, maybe even a little earlier so there are exceptions to this. In the midwest where I live modern sewage wasn't adopted until the early 1900's.

I got on ebay about 1997 and had to create a user name so I chose "idigjars" as my pseudonym. I sold my jar collection about 1999/2000 to put a 1500 square foot addition on our home. I still have some jars but about the same time I sold my jar collection I kind of became fascinated with marbles and started participating in some of Bob Blocks live auctions on Sunday nights and would pick up a marble once in awhile. I was a "closet" marble collector for quite a few years and a couple years ago our youngest Grandson Joey (11) decided he liked marbles and began collecting them. So we started collecting marbles together. We have taken Joey to a few marble shows and he loves going to marble shows and learning (me too). I generously share marbles with Joey and he loves oxbloods the most but he also has lots of other examples of marbles including some hybrid cat eyes. He has a very nice collection of oxbloods and I have to say that marble dealers treat Joey exceptionally kind when we take him with us to marble shows.

One of our older Grandson's (Alex) was interested in digging and bottles so I started taking him a few years ago and teaching him how to date bottles and the privies we were digging and about history. I love history. Another Grandson and I woodcarve together. I am including a pic of Alex holding a historical whiskey flask from the 1870's that he dug. Also a pic of a canning jar I just sold to a buddy of mine who loved it more than me. The original lid on this jar was worth a few hundred itself. I'm also including a piece of flat tile that I found in a privy once that had a charcoal/graphite drawing on it. The only reason it survived is because the drawing side was upside down in the pit.

I love all marbles even cat eyes (hybrids). Anybody that knows me can attest I'm pretty OCD about marbles. haha

I've met some super nice marble collectors and dealers and always appreciate their kindness and willingness to share knowledge of marbles. I believe in thinking positive and so I try to encourage anybody I can about anything. I believe we are supposed to uplift and encourage one another aren't we? And when folks step forward and make a post to share I want to add a positive comment. I don't feel informed enough to help with marble identifications as some of these educated folks on here though. So tell us about your username please. Best regards to all. Paul

[idigjars]

I found another pic of canning jars to share. This is from the Kalamazoo bottle show in April 2013. Kbobam, I see that you mentioned you like bottles. What types of bottles do you like? Please share some pics with us.

[godown]

Nice stuff Paul love the picture of young Alex with his Whiskey flask what an amazing find Guess you guys would have been over the moon to dig a complete flask I wouldnt have thought it would have been an all to common bottle to dig

Great looking jars also you guys are blessed with some wonderful colours over there love the amber immersers

Best wishes thanks for showing

Craig C

[kbobam]

So that's a 'yes' on the both dig-digging and enjoy-digging?

Thanks for all the information. This is interesting stuff!

And I honestly didn't expect to especially like the canning

jars, but while looking at that impressive collection in the last

photo I suddenly 'got' it. Although it made me a little nervous

in a bull in a china shop kind of way. If I was actually there

I'd be standing way back.

The other individual items are great too.

I've never dug anything. Although I'm 54, there's no doubt

in my mind that I'd be just as thrilled as Alex must have been

to discover that bottle.

The sequence to my small collections of stuff went like this:

1. Saw a metal six-pack carrier for 7up on the bay one day.

Went nuts. I'd never seen anything like it. Not even sure

if I'd ever bought anything on-line before. Possibly

a few practical things, but nothing like this.

2. Some time later had the brilliant realization that these soda

carriers I liked would be even neater with bottles in them!

(I can be a little slow at times.)

3. Searching for bottles, I stumbled upon the existence of a

7up marble. Of course I had to have one. This is when

all heck started to break loose.

4. Eventually figured out that the people who made the Akro

marbles which were some of my favorites also made other stuff!

I'm pretty exhausted tonight, and constantly fighting a bad habit

of talking too much, so let me get back to you soon with some

photos and more rambling. Thanks for sharing your background! Bob

[kbobam]

The username doesn't have a lot to it.

Way back when I needed a name for something or other and came

up with the imaginary radio station WBOBFM. At some point there

were some problems with an account which wouldn't let me reinstate

with this name, so I recreated myself as KBOBAM, the west-coast version.

Here are some bottle pictures. Some of the pictures of bottles in carriers

aren't quite accurate, which is to say the bottles might be older than the

carrier or vice-versa. I go back and forth on being a stickler for accuracy

or just doing what I think looks good in the photo.

The seltzer water bottle is kind of neat as a Depression-era item, since it shows one company's label painted over another's.

Those big heavy bottles weren't cheap, so you got them wherever you could.

The picture of the marble on the 7up bottle shows that original carrier I thought was so cool. Also my favorite 7up marble.

And if you look at the cap in a sideways upside-down way, you'll see the word 'lithiated'. Most people don't know that 7up

has a 'drug-related' background, just like Coca-Cola. Up until 1950 you can see lithium in the ingredients on the label as well.

The two bottles of coke are in a contraption that the Coca-Cola folks added onto grocery carts to entice you to pause and

refresh while shopping.

The last picture includes a pair of 7up dice. All fives on one of them and twos on the other! ( :

[godown]

You have some nice bottle`s and go withs Kbobam thanks for showing them I like the seltzer syphon pretty cool trade mark for a fizzy drink " a real kick in the glass "

Craig C

[kbobam]

Thanks, Craig!

I was kind of embarrassed at one point when I bought the water bottle.

Wrote the seller asking him if he could reduce the expensive shipping charge.

He wrote back something like "I guess I could, but why would I?"

It was only then I realized I was thinking in terms of Coke or 7up bottles.

You'd need quite a few of them to equal the weight of this sucker.

Another topic if it's okay. Only recently figured out that there really is

a Duffy, Ohio in the States. So now I'm paying a little more attention to

people's locations. Having looked up Fremantle, I have a 'can' question for you.

Are you familiar with this stuff? The can isn't part of a collection. I've just kept

it for many years because I thought it was the best beer I'd ever tasted and

haven't seen it since. But one time it appeared in the background of a photo I

posted, and people wrote back off-topic asking why I would drink "that swill".

Which is putting it a little more nicely than they did.

Don't know if you're a beer-person, but wondering if you have an opinion.

(And forgive me if I'm being an idiot for ass-uming that you must be familiar

with it since you're on the same continent!) Bob

[godown]

Yeah they are pretty heavy alright Bob we have a few nice local coloured ones down here in the west blues peach amethyst there well supported as a category and the rare one`s get up there in value

Only got the one on file belongs to one of our club members the company is local to me if i remember right its the only one known that is sun coloured

As for the can of dish water ive never tried it mostly on principle as its from Queensland and im not! We have a pretty fierce interstate rivalry down here which includes sport beer which state has the best drivers or Antique bottles the list goes on and on ill give you an example i m from sth Australia and for a while i went to live in New South Wales which is the state up and to the right so i was from down south so any time i turned up any were id hear

ahhhhhhhh the mexican peasant is here, mexican because i was from down south Peasant cause i drove a Chrysler which was considered inferior as it wasn't a Ford or Holden

All jokes aside i dont really drink to much these days but if im in the mood its wild turkey or jack daniels beer gives me a head ache

Craig C

[duffy]

thanks for becoming a believer,bob...lololol.....

[kbobam]

Nice label on nice glass!

I guess all that 'rivalry' explains the

intensity of the responses to my can.

Steve, I'm such a believer that I'm convinced you could build

a big enough slingshot to send a marble over the river from

Ohio to West Virginia. What do you say? Probably get you

in the Guinness book. And we all want to see you on TV!

[godown]

Apparently this is the distributer in Ohio

shows xxxx

http://www.micromatic.com/beer-distributor/oh/akron/tramonte-distributing-co.-bdid-1148.html

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1267+S.+Main+St.,+Akron,+OH+44301&oi=map

[kbobam]

And they have the Oranjeboom I mentioned

recently in a conversation with Winnie too!

Don't know why I have 'beer on the brain' lately.

[duffy]

you've got me convinced,kbob...