# You ever wreck a bottle five minutes after you got it?



## blobbottlebob (Sep 3, 2010)

One time, out diving, I found a loop seal beer that I had never found before. It wasn't super rare but I was excited to get it. As I was putting it into my float to protect it, it slipped and broke on another bottle. This thing had been sitting peacefully for 100 years on the bottom in the soft silt. I had it for two seconds and broke it. Nice job. I submerged the pieces to their final resting place. 

 (I have more stories like this but I'll let others jump in here) . . .


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## JOETHECROW (Sep 3, 2010)

YES! A few years back, Penn Digger and I had found a small, but uphill from the cellar hole "Homestead" dump, we had been digging it out evenings after work,...Since it was growing dark, I kept placing my keepers right where I'd not overlook them,...I had a really cool "Parsons Ammonia" bottle,...(nothing too valuable, but I like em) When I climbed up out of the hole, I slipped and sat right down on it with a crunch.[]


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 3, 2010)

Pretty cool!. I mean I'm sorry to hear that Joe. I imagine that something like this has happened to all of us from time to time. Did you come through the incident without harm? (I was trying to avoid any comments about cracks and glass).


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## cyberdigger (Sep 3, 2010)

Klutzes. []

 I broke dozens of good ones by poking my "probe shovel" in the river muck too quick.. only to excavate my own hand-made shards..


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 3, 2010)

Chuck. Who you callin' a Klutz? You know what they say? Those who probe glass houses should stick to hanky panky (and food).

 Oh, and sorry for your lost bottles.


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## cyberdigger (Sep 4, 2010)

Sorry, man.. got carried away.. nobody is a klutz except for me.. a social klutz.. I love you, Bob.. you too, Joe.. I was just trying to make a funny haha..


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

Okay. Here's another one. (Although I think I am less klutzy in this story).

 We were out diving what we called 'the medcine corner'. This was a spot in a lake that was loaded with medicine bottles. Here's the weird thing. Many of the bottles were filled with a yellowish liquid and were selaed with original corks. Many of the bottles were slicks but some were embossed from local druggists. The bottles could be quite cool. 
 We were out in early July and it was a scorching hot day. Our practice upon finding these bottles was to protect them in our floats, and them dump them at the end of the dive. (You had to pry the cork and hold your breath. Contrary to popular belief, hundred year old urine does not smell better than the fresh stuff). So, when I finished my tank, I surfaced to clean out my bottles. My dive buddy informed me that the bottles he found had "popped" in his float and he never touched them. I thought he must have bumped them without realizing it. When I checked my float, mine had popped too. The hot hot sun roasting on the cooled bottles (that were thin-walled medicines) caused them to burst. We both learned to remove the corks upon finding the bottles. I, however, lost a very rare local druggist that I have never found again. Poop. (I mean urine).


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

Chuck. We love you more (speaking for on behalf of Joe -hope you don't mind Joe).

 For this medicine bottle spot, we speculated that a doctor or pharmacist lived (or worked) right on this shoreline and must have been getting urine samples from his patients. Being very thorough, he saved his samples for awhile but then thought, I've got to get rid of these. Then he chucked them in the lake to clean things up. . . . Its a theory.


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## cyberdigger (Sep 4, 2010)

So did any of the centurian urine survive? or was it a total pop-out? 
 I wonder what a chemical ana.a.a.lysis would reveal..?


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

Chuck,
 We pulled out over hundred of these urine filled bottles. That day, several broke. But on every other day, that hadn't happened. Unfortunately, we dumped the contents of each and every one. If there was any evidentiary value in them, we could go back and work the spot again. I'm guessing we missed a few and we left a few slicks. However, the urine was pretty nasty smelling and as far as I know it could not be pinned to any one person. Maybe some expert on urine could do some kind of checmical study to determine the diet of a hundred years ago, but where's the funding going to come for that? I can't see anyone doing their phd on century old pee.


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## cyberdigger (Sep 4, 2010)

Let's hold a forum auction to fund it.. I have a baby face pyro milk I'm willing to toss in.. !


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

Wait wait wait. Before you start donating to the cause, we gotta find a chemist who likes stinky old urine.


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## JOETHECROW (Sep 4, 2010)

> ORIGINAL: blobbottlebob
> 
> Pretty cool!. I mean I'm sorry to hear that Joe. I imagine that something like this has happened to all of us from time to time. Did you come through the incident without harm? (I was trying to avoid any comments about cracks and glass).


 

 Bob,...No harm, except to my dignity,....and Penn Digger had a well deserved chuckle over the incident too, because I had just beforehand, cautioned him on where I'd placed my bottles, so he wouldn't step on them...(We do an awful lot of "last light" rituals,) We always seem to be out till, or just after dark....[]


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## cyberdigger (Sep 4, 2010)

> ORIGINAL:  blobbottlebob
> 
> Wait wait wait. Before you start donating to the cause, we gotta find a chemist who likes stinky old urine.


 
 I got some connections...


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

I'm glad you were okay. Nobody wants a crack in their glass . . .


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## JOETHECROW (Sep 4, 2010)

> ORIGINAL: blobbottlebob
> 
> Chuck. We love you more (speaking for on behalf of Joe -hope you don't mind Joe).
> 
> For this medicine bottle spot, we speculated that a doctor or pharmacist lived (or worked) right on this shoreline and must have been getting urine samples from his patients. Being very thorough, he saved his samples for awhile but then thought, I've got to get rid of these. Then he chucked them in the lake to clean things up. . . . Its a theory.


 

 That theory sounds,...well,...sound, to me,...[] Weird story about the exploding 100 year old urine!,...Only a bottle collector could find this interesting? But you've got some cool storys Bob. Charlie,...Let's hear more about your shovel/probing dig technique, and early riverbank dig storys!...We love ya man![]


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

Chuck,
 We got the liking old urine down (and those dogs look pretty smart) but I bet there ain't a chemist in the lot.


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## cyberdigger (Sep 4, 2010)

I got some stories for ya.. first, where's dinner??


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

> Only a bottle collector could find this interesting?


 Thanks Joe. Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up.

 One other funny thing that happened there. My dive buddy thought that he was in a good spot and he didn't want to come up. When he found a small medicine, he really wanted to keep working. So, he tucked the bottle into his mask strap on the side of his head. The thing uncorked while he worked. However, it wasn't full of urine, it was full of that greasy orange oil you sometimes see in old bottles. The stuff was really gross. Because it uncorked underwater, my buddy's hair was full of the stuff. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera with me that day.


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## cyberdigger (Sep 4, 2010)

was it fluffy or flat?


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## JOETHECROW (Sep 4, 2010)

I was wondering, from listening to all you divers, and your creative ways to stash bottles while your on the bottom and not wanting to surface,....would some type of arm zipper-sleeve/bag, type thing do the job to stash bottles, or would it impede your movement too much? I'll bet your buddy loved trying to get the orange grease out of his hair!....[]


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

You talking about me? 
 Oh whew. Its the hair. He was lucky. He had a military style buzz cut. That helped him rinse it off a bit.


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

Hey Joe,
 He was able to get most of it out but that stuff stunk too. I think it wasn't until after a few showers that he couldn't smell it anymore.

 As far as storing stuff goes, now I use the little seam between the layers of my suit at my thigh. (I have experimented with different methods, though). The seam works really nicely becuase it holds quite a bit and you can feel the stuff that's in there. So, if it starts to slide out, you can push it back in. Sometimes, I just come up. However, when you feel like you're right on the hot spot, you don't want to risk losing where you are . . .


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

Here's a great story (but out of context with this post). 

 One time I was out about 15 feet deep and I found a beautiful embossed weiss beer with all of the stopper (lightning) pieces still on it. I didn't want to tuck it away because those rusty pieces can break off easily. I started to pull my float over by the float line. Then I thought to myself, "Hey self. What if some guy was fishing here and dropped a six pack of these things?" So, I stopped for a moment. Holding the weiss beer in one hand, I began to pat around for anything else. As I rotated, my fin hit something behind me. I turned around and found the identical bottle. Same brand. Same mold. Same stopper. Cool! I began pulling on my float line to take them up when I though to myself, "Hey self. Didn't you say it might be a SIX pack?" So, I put both bottles carefully into one hand and began patting aound on this side (where I found the second bottle). My fin bumped something behind me (where I was before). I turned around and found another one. Same bottle. Same mold. Same stopper. Wow. Now I thought to myself. "Self, don't be an idiot. You can't hold any more of these. Go up. Unload and come back." So, I went up. I did not find any more of those weiss beers that day. I either lost my spot or found them all. However, back to the point - - - - - You have one day like that and you're reluctant to lose your place on the bottom!


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## Brains (Sep 4, 2010)

no bottles, but my insulators have about a 1 in 5 mortality rate from the time i find them till after i've cleaned them


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## PrivyCheese (Sep 4, 2010)

Back in the 70's there used to be "bottle" shops around...yeah, actual shops that dealt in nothing but bottles....those were the days......but I digress. Anyways, my freinds mother was driving us to said bottle shop to do some tradeing. I had a E.G. Booze....not the repo, but a real one. Back in the day Gatorade came in glass bottles I had one of these bottles laying next to me in the back seat.

    While driving I had the Booze in my hand admireing it. It slipped out of my hand, slid down the seat and right into the Gatorade bottle. Knocked the corner right out of the Booze Huge crack down the side .....Back then it was only a couple hundred bucks.....wish I still had it.Over thiry years later I still beat myself up over that one.


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## recusant (Sep 4, 2010)

For this medicine bottle spot, we speculated that a doctor or pharmacist lived (or worked) right on this shoreline and must have been getting urine samples from his patients. Being very thorough, he saved his samples for awhile but then thought, I've got to get rid of these. Then he chucked them in the lake to clean things up. . . . Its a theory.
 [/quote] 

 Being one who refuses to conform to the ways of some laws,I would say said urine bottles were produced from a fishing boat.You find a good spot where you are catching fish and you stay put.After a while you will get thirsty and you whip out a little "smile"(drink) but when you toss it off,you save it.Standing up in the boat is not only risky after a few "smiles" but its also considered rude to piss out over the gunwale right in plain view of everyone.So,you sit where you are and make like you are digging into your cooler or something so that even peeping Toms or Game Wardens wouldnt know what you were up to.Remembering the time you tossed it overboard without the cork and got some on you,the bottle is stoppered ceremoniously every time.Since you have spent a sufficient amount of time trying to catch fish in your "hotspot",the bottles on the bottom of the lake keep piling up...Picking returnables on the side of the road can be just as hazardous.Truckers dont like to stop.[]


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## recusant (Sep 4, 2010)

> ORIGINAL:  cyberdigger
> 
> I got some stories for ya.. first, where's dinner??


 


 You should be on "Whos line is it anyway?" You are crackin me up.[]


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## mr.fred (Sep 4, 2010)

Yes i have----several at the same time------was out digging  2 years ago---found 3-4 keepers and had nothing to carry them out with[]----walked back to my truck and grabbed a large towel i use to sit on so my seat stays clean[8D]----got to my bottles---folded the towel in half-----put a bottle in rolled the towel a little and repeated the process until all of them were safe and sound[]--------then i had a Senior moment and reached down to pickup the towel and grabbed it by the corner thus unfolding the towel and the All came tumbling out on top of each other[]----breaking each other [].     Fred.


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## JOETHECROW (Sep 4, 2010)

Ouch Fred! Sounds like something I might do during one of my 'senior moments'[]....That made me think of the time I had a bottle in my truck that I was taking along to show Penn Digger,...when I got there he checked it out, _and_ had a bottle that he ran across, that he gave to me (That's Tom for you)[] On the way home, some hasty driver backed out of a blind driveway, (like a bad video game),...you guessed it!, when I had to jump on the brakes, the bottle I had on the seat launched onto the one on the floormat and they both bit the dust.....[]


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

> no bottles, but my insulators have about a 1 in 5 mortality rate from the time i find them till after i've cleaned them


 Thats funny Brains. But you must have some bad luck. Those insulators look like they could take on hurricane Earl. They are thick and solid!


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

> Knocked the corner right out of the Booze Huge crack down the side .....


 That is painful Balto. I hate when that happens.


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

> its also considered rude to **** out over the gunwale right in plain view of everyone.


 Hey recuse,
 Interesting theory, there. I definately have done this kind of stuff. I'm out there diving. A tank lasts two hours. The water is cold and I've go to pee like a race horse. I kneel down, peel off some wet suit and look like I'm doing something else.

 There are several reasons why I don't think this is the case.
 1. There were hunreds of medicine bottles there of every different sort. There were flasks, and medicines from almost every local druggist (all different ones dating to different years). And they were all different sizes. Most of them, though, were two or three ounces or something (not enough to releive the smile face).

 2. The depth there ranges from two feet to about four feet deep and it is ten to thirty feet from shore. Therefore, it seems likely that you'd beach it. Also, a fisherman could reach this spot with a bamboo pole from shore . . .


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

> grabbed a large towel


 Hey Fred,
 Sorry for your losses. 
 You know its funny. Some of the guys around here that dig are so superstitious that they will not bring a box to store their bottles in. The glass around here is apparently so fickle that if you bring a box, the bottles will retreat to a better hiding spot and you will get skunked. Better to not bring the box and find stuff then to not find anything . . .


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

Hey Joe,
 I had a similar one. I put a minty hutch on the front seat to show it off to somebody. It shifted a bit (but stayed on the seat). When I arrived, I opened the passenger door. Bad idea. Bottle meets concrete.


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## bostaurus (Sep 4, 2010)

I think I posted this when it happened but here goes again.  A couple years ago, when we were still in Germany, I found a large, pontiled demijohn at a huge flea market near us for the equivalent of about $5.  My son offered to carry it but I knew he wanted to go off on his own looking for military stuff.  I told him it was no problem...I had been carrying bottles around for decades.  It was early April and we had a hard frost on the ground. I was carrying it in a bear hug.  I stepped off a sidewalk into a big parking lot full of vendors.  Next thing I knew I was on the ground with my demijohn in a hundred pieces under me.  The heavy frost was my bane and saving grace that day.  If not for the frost I would not have lost the bottle ...on the other hand my heavy wool coat kept me from ending up with glass in my chest and arms.  
 I did end up with alot of cuts on my hands and lower arms but fortunately not too deep.  The Germans just looked at me.  One vendor did come over and help me up and supply me with tissues to stem the bleeding.  I wiped off the blood and continued on ...there were more bottles out there!  
 It was only later, after I got home, that I realized how fortunate I was not to be badly injured.  I still have faint scars on my wrists and hands.  Sure was a nice bottle!!


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## bottle_head9 (Sep 4, 2010)

I bought a Dr. CW. Rowbacks barrell bitters on ebay for $350.00. It was in mint condition.As soon as I opened the box and inspected the bottle, I washed it.While washing it with hand soap, I banged the base on the sink.The bottle didn`t shatter, but left a nice 1/2" long crack/flash.I was sooo angry...[][]


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

> Next thing I knew I was on the ground with my demijohn in a hundred pieces under me.


 Well, its a good thing you weren't injured Bostaurus. That probably was embarrassing, though.


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

> I banged the base on the sink.


 That stinks Head9. I have been lucky with cleaning for the most part. I have heard of rare bottles just exploding when they were cleaned. Just last weekend, I was getting some of the stubborn residue out of a medicine bottle that I was trying to give away.I was shaking the copper pretty vigorously (I'm used to sodas which are heavier glass) and all of a sudden there is foamy lime-away flying everywhere. On the positive side, the bottle was sparkling. On the negative, it was missing the bottom corner.


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 4, 2010)

Ever drop a bottle at a show? Every head turns. []


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## cyberdigger (Sep 4, 2010)

"Ever drop a bottle at a show? Every head turns. [] " 

 [] that was funny!!!


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## Plumbata (Sep 4, 2010)

I've broken a few nice ones while digging, but the most memorable ill-fated slice of the shovel broke a 1 ounce "Block and Kuhl" perfume bottle, which is both a Peoria local and particularly scarce apparently, since as far as I can tell they were not known before I found them and brought them to the club. I had a great example already  so no major loss, but it would have been the best of the dig because everything else was crap.

 Another foolish move was placing  on the windowsill outside 2 bottles; a decent "Wakefields' Blackberry Balsam" from Bloomington and a very nice and scarce "Bowman's Pectoral Syrup Peoria ILL". The old glass storm window was not latched at the base, so naturally a gust of wind had to come by and somehow blew open the window, thus knocking the bottles onto solid concrete. I had another Bowmans, not at nice unfortunately, but at least I didn't loose both of them.

 When I was selling huge lots of Bromo-seltzers I had kept all of them in a wooden crate outside. A rainstorm followed by freezing temperatures swept through the area, and by the time I realized the danger to the bottles it was too late. Only about 25 of 120 or so survived.

 One of my dumbest moves (much like the "senior moments" referred to by our Pennsylvania department) began by placing 1 small 1/2 oz pharm inside a sock (a "The Bell Drug Store" with embossed bell, presumably from Peoria as there was a druggist named bell at the time), rolling it a bit, then I placed in it a rare 1 ounce pharmacy from a druggist (I think the only one actually) from a small town of 1000 people in western IL. "H.M. Bentley Pharmacist Sidney, ILL" I believe it was. I was doing this because I was going to the monthly flea market in P-town and expected to see a fellow club member there who I wanted to run the finds by. I found him and promptly proceeded to pull the sock out in excitement, flinging the Sidney druggist onto the concrete. It clanked and clattered but didn't shatter amazingly. Apparently 1/3rd of the otherwise perfect lip bore the brunt of the impact and vanished in a scattered pile of minuscule shards. That sucked. Then when I got home I forgot to take the Bell bottle out of my pocket (no longer in the sock) and put a load of wash in... When it came out there was practically no lip left, just an ugly jagged ring around the top (like flared lip pontils with the flare all broken off). I was pretty salty about the whole episode for a while.

 My brother, a non-collector and general klutz, has broken many of my own and my father's bottles over the years. Most recently was the destruction of a sweet 1920s blown 10 gallon demijohn by roller-skating into it, and not long before he broke a pre-1906 20 gallon Western Stoneware crock that my dad had bought by tipping it over for some stupid reason. It was perfect beforehand, so sad. 

 When we were younger and in grade school, he broke both of my 3.5 foot tall Italian wine bottles (bout 3 feet of neck), and in a fit of evil spite he took a whole crate of my prized bottles (some nice but common meds and bitters) and shattered them all in a corner of the room. 

 He barely survived my wrath. []  

 Thankfully he has chilled out as he matured and now makes a rather serviceable digging partner, but wow the things he did to me (my stuff) when we were younger still makes my blood boil. Once I got back from school to find almost my entire coin collection in the garbage out front! There was 2 grand worth of great coins out in the open on top of the trash which cound have been taken by anybody. Other times I found individual coins missing, only to discover them years later in air vent registers or other weird places (An 1877 seated dime was the most recent recovery). He ripped the binding off of some prize leather-bound books, stuck his thumb through and destroyed a decently valuable "Boyd's Battery" patented in 1878 or so, ruined delicate fossils, and generally was a horrible force to have so near my possessions. I don't recall ever really instigating anything either. He was just a tantrum-throwing video-game playing spiteful little imp for quite some time and i despised him for what he did without compunction, but several years ago I bit the bullet, patiently repaired our relationship, and now am trying to help him fix the damage he has done to his relationship with our parents. Family is more important than material things or past transgressions, after all.


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 5, 2010)

> Family is more important than material things or past transgressions, after all.


 Great stories Plumb. I love the kindness shown to your family. However, I hope you remind him at the end of a dig just how many bottles it will take to make things even . . .


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## bostaurus (Sep 5, 2010)

> That probably was embarrassing, though.


 You know, the older I get the less I get embarrassed.  I think kids do that for you...first having them then having to take them places.
   I think there was an initial second of embarrassment, then I realized that my prize bottle was destroyed and I got mad.


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 5, 2010)

Now that's the right answer Bostaurus!
 I had a buddy who gave a little speech at a wedding reception and then returned to his seat at the head table. Everyone was still watching him as he sat down. He hit his chair which was propped up on this platform, scootched over just a bit and tumbled backwards off of the platform. Everyone saw it. Some people were laughing, some were worried about him. He stood up made a grand bow, fixed his chair and sat right back down. Nicely done!


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 5, 2010)

> "Ever drop a bottle at a show? Every head turns. "
> 
> that was funny!!!


 
 Thanks Chuck.
 I've done this. There was a paper table cloth hiding the cafeteria quality tables that the bottles sat on at a show. At the edge of my booth, two tables came together but from the top it looked like one continuous surface. Hutch gets placed there. Hutch goes down. All conversation stops. Everyone turns to see if someone is crying and screaming while holding their hands to their head, "WHY? WHY?"

 (I wasn't doing that). It's a shame to loose any antique bottle but I've found many examples of the Supreme that I lost.


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## beendiggin (Sep 5, 2010)

My first poison was a cobalt Triloids...I put it on the slope just above me, and within a minute I watched it roll down onto a rock and break...I was not pleased with myself.  I have never dug a Triloids since, and that was over 20 years ago. I also never put bottles on a slope above where I'm digging, either.


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## blobbottlebob (Sep 5, 2010)

> I watched it roll down onto a rock and break...


 Ouch. That's gotta be painful to watch it happen (and then second guess yourself for the next twenty years!) Hope you get another one.


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## SAbottles (Sep 15, 2010)

I can certainly relate to that one. Had just started digging and was on a local dump; dug a nice Benbow's Dog Mixture and moved a bit further on. Dug another bottle and gently tossed it over to the previous spot -  and of course it landed right on the neck of the Benbow's !! Moral: don't throw old bottles around!


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