A GHOSTLY DIG

By Pamela Hegedus

Susquehanna, Pa.

Our tale begins in the heat of the summer--the day we decided to take a drive around the area and check out some of the places we had seen vacant over the months. Our main focus was an old deserted beef farm, close to a town which was situated about thirty miles from what I call home, as well as an old house and shell of a schoolhouse. Down the road from the farm and other building, there is an old store which is as creepy as ever, the inside looking as ancient as the outer section. In the days to follow our first investigation of the old property (and yes, we got permission) we encountered some rather "interesting" occurences in addition to a memorable dig.

My youngest son, Colin and I decided we would drive up the road first, scanning the woods for possibly dumping areas. We knew the farm had been used from the mid 1800's and the old house, now collapsed and just a rubble of a building, was part of a small town school. We considered the possibility of perhaps finding some old inkwells around that building.

First, we drove along the country lane, past the house and farm. The barn and outbuildings were on one side of the road, and the shell of a house and school on the other. The woods looked uninteresting, but we figured we would do a more thorough check later, after we had explored the buildings. Walking up the dirt path leading to the house, I scouted along the edges of the stone wall, overturning rocks and finding two local sodas and a small size Pond's Extract. Colin yelled for me to come up the steep path to the house, which was overgrown with brush and stinging burdocks. The steps were broken sections of rock sticking out of weeds. All of a sudden, I felt a sting like a wasp, then realized it was not an animal but a plant which I had run into. My arm burned like fire! I smarted for a few minutes, then continued to my venture through heavy brush and up towards where my so was digging. Colin showed me an amber remedy bottle for mange, common but a keeper. He had found it under some rotted boards, along with a pair of well worn leather baby shoes. He showed me two nice blob beers, one in citron, complete with the original stopper, the other one plain aqua and having some damage. He said he had met up with an older fellow who showed him where to look. I asked him where he had gone, and he pointed up towards the hill. No one was in sight. It had taken me about half an hour to catch up with Colin, as I spent some time moving those rocks along the wall. I hadn't heard any voices but then the highway was in the distance and I could hear large trucks rumbling and crows squawking in the field. I had a hard time hearing Colin calling for me to come to where he was digging, so I would never have heard voices unless they talked loudly. He told me, too, that we needed to go across to the old schoolhouse and dig in the small grove of trees behind it. He claimed the "old fellow" had told him that was where they dumped the old glass. I didn't see any old guy?

We spent the next four hours digging in what was the old dump, uncovering medicines like SAVE-THE-HORSE SPAVIN CURE and an opened pontilled DR TOBIAS, NEW YORK, VENETIAN HORSE LINIMENT and about twenty other embossed medicines, eight local sodas, a few more common inks and the prize of all--a cross-shaped holy water bottle.

We cleaned up as best we could, loaded the car, and took a quick walk across the road and field to the barn. Other than an old glass shade from a lamp, we didn't see a spot of glass.

We drove to the corner store for some cold drinks, and after we made our purchases and returned to the car, ready to head home when said "That's the guy!" I glanced to the porch of the store to see a shadowy figure of a man dressed in old-fashioned dress. The apparition faded quickly into the air, as dusk began to settle over the rural countryside. We wondered if we had just seen a ghost, or if indeed this had been the same fellow my son had seen and had led him to the old bottle dump. I guess we will never know.

That autumn we returned three more times and found about thirty more decent bottles. We still have digging to do around the house itself, but that will have to wait until spring.....

Did you enjoy this digging story? Every month Antique Bottle and Glass Collector magazine gives you neat digging stories like this one.

Why not subscribe today!

It's easy just click here. SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Return me to: HOME PAGE - Go to: OTHER DIGGING STORIES