It’s Show time!By the time you get this newsletter, well, who knows what will have happened?
As your newsletter writer, it is hard, when the month starts on a Tuesday, because that means the second Tuesday, our meeting day, is really fast approaching!
If you missed all of the bottle show hullabaloo, don’t feel too bad, we still have an April
club meeting planned for Tuesday, April 8th!
I had taken great pains, and I spent two days of work sharing everything that I could about the show. I had it ready to be mailed two days earlier than normal. I did all this, not knowing Vincent had already basically duplicated and sent everything.
Yes, I know, he has his mind on making this show a success, and I think he is doing a great job! But, he will not be remembered as the great communicator.
So, let’s see; I had our taxes done on Saturday which showed, at the height of the most glorious and triumphant part of that blessing called Biden-Nomics, my business loss was over fourteen thousand dollars. I paid H & R Block, $500.00 to learn that I owe nothing in taxes.
And, from the new D.O.G.E. We all now know, we were funding Drag Queen Story Hour in 3rd world countries. So proud to be an American.
For 34 years I have been setting up a 3-table display at the bottle show, and thereby closing my store on a Saturday in April, which was not good!
With the Amazon market looming over me like a dark shadow, I feel it is best that I work my store this year.
I started this newsletter on Sunday March 30th and it is 72̊ degrees!!
About one hour after starting the newsletter, on my home computer, right under my nose, my cell-phone lets out a SCREECH like a turkey buzzard being neutered with a dull butter knife!
It was a weather
alert! Take Shelter!
High winds up to 80 miles per hour! Well, the storm passed pretty quickly, but for about 10 minutes we had a down-pour! Then I received word that the old paper mill in Plainwell had lost a large portion of the roof! That same wind up-rooted a 50 foot power pole in downtown Plainwell.
Not far from our house, in Kalamazoo, one of those huge shelter canopies, over a Marathon Gas Station pump island, blew over and barely missed the building!
Everything is falling except the price of gas!
Vince’s Notes
Thanks to Vincent, I have some newsletter material I can easily share, in the copy-and-paste fashion with
(just a little tweaking.)
♬ I heard it through
the grapevine ♬ ♬
The next club meeting scheduled for April 8, 2025 will be ‘POST SHOW’ and filled with news hot off the press, fresh from the big event! And yes still warm to the touch!
Please, you do not want to miss out!
Len Sheaffer, will be updating us with a Club's Treasurer' Report! Including info on overall checking, non-profit, etc..status.
Vincent Grossi, (the raisin on the right) will be given the K.A.B.C.'s 44th Annual, Antique Bottle & Glass Show Report for the April 5th, 2025
Check out the New Bottle Display Cases both at the Otsego Museum and the Portage District Library.
Skipping Ahead to May. . . . .
We will be taking this show on the road!
On Tuesday May 13th, our regular meeting night, we are gathering at the Portage District Library.
The Library is located at: 300 Library Lane, Portage, MI 49002.
(Al here) Years ago, one of the city founders, a dear friend of mine, Don Overlander, decided the school was working out so well . . . well, they actually had a small gaggle of mother goose fans!
They decided maybe a library was in order. Hey, they already had a few books . . .so now the problem is; ‘where to build the thing?’
It was at that moment when someone suggested, “Hey! Why not Church Street?”
Another said, “Well no, we built the Church on Church Street.”
My friend, Don, spoke up and suggested they consider Library Lane, “Hey, we have nothing going on down there, and after-all the spelling is very similar.”
So it came to pass, Library Lane it would be.
Our beloved President, Scott Hendrichsen, will be giving a Privy Digging Presentation!
If you are a new settler to this area, and lacking a good place to do your business, digging a privy may be just what the doctor ordered!
Time: 6PM-7PM. Portage District Library (NOTE: meeting time a little Earlier(6PM).
A short regular meeting will be held after the presentation. This will be the last club meeting before our Summer Break. Please, stop over and see the bottle display case as well.
The West Michigan Antique Bottle Club will be hosting the 2025, 3rd Annual Group Picnic
For both clubs, WMABC and KABC.
Date: Sunday, August 17,
2025. Time: 11AM-3PM?. New Location: Hagar Park Maples Picnic Shelter, 8134 28th Ave, Jenison, MI. 49428-9537. More Details will follow at a later date.
Just another thought . . . .
Maybe we can talk about scheduling our Next Pizza Party at Bimbo's : ? Tuesday, June 10th, 2025 at 6:30PM, ?? Tuesday, September 9th, 2025 at 6:30PM, or ??? other dates.
Hopefully this will be the year the bottle club goes on a Group Dig. The planning and scheduling of the BIG DIGGING EVENT(S)??
The Club's BY-LAWS needs to move forward. We need to form a committee. Summer Project!
Show And Tell New Bottle Finds & Related Items! Club's $5 Raffle Table!
LAST MONTH
Here are the names of those happy campers at our last meeting: Scott Hendrichsen
Vincent Grossi, Ashley Carlson, Kevin Siegfried, Len Sheaffer, Juli Sheaffer, Brian Wages, Katie Wages, Mary Gale, Ron Smith, Tim Hayes, Rob Knolle, Lynn Kozik, Al Holden.
And happy they were! It was a perfect night for the meeting!
ANTIQUE-BOTTLES- R-US!
We saw some beauties!
To start
out with: we had a chance to view a very well written
article, by Ashley Carlson! It was published in “The
Heart of Texas Corners” newspaper. Hey folks, I know she is just as busy as she is talented, but right there is your next newsletter writer!
Thank you Ashley, it was great!
Rob Knolle showed us
a few nice dairy bottles! Two were Applied Colored Label (A.C.L.) Both, one quart bottles
I could clearly read.
One of Rob’s bottles was a clear one-quart bottle with red pryo-glaze from McDonald Dairy in Flint Michigan. The dairy started in 1929 and closed in 2009.
Like many Michigan dairies, they were swallowed up by Country Fresh in Grand Rapids.
In 1932, McDonald Dairy became the first dairy in the nation to successfully introduce homogenized milk!
In 1945, McDonald introduced milk sold in square milk bottles for easy storage in refrigerator!
Another one quart bottle Rob displayed is a nice A.C.L. bottle in Amber. It is from Bornhoff Dairy. A father and his two Bornhoff sons owned and operated Bornhoff Dairy, a milk processing, and home delivery plant, serving homes on the Chicagoland North shore from 1930 until 1972.
Brian Wages
had a sweet teal-green
free-blown saddle flask at the meeting . . .
what a beauty!These Saddle Flasks, seem to be often in the same color, which suggests the same source. They come from somewhere in the middle east or northern Africa.
I looked on the auction price report and the experts are all over the board on dates. Because, the Muslim States are still so far in the dark ages, some things are still being made today like they were 300 years ago! Did you know in India they still use some Codd Soda Bottles?
If it was a US made, or UK made, free- blown with a crude open pontil, sheared and tooled lips, applied swirled neck ribbon, one would have to think 1700's or early 1800 . . . . but who knows?
The saddle flask were the granddaddy to the modern Boy Scout Canteen! They were designed for carrying water or wine on the backs of camels or horses. They are made of very thick, heavy glass and originally would have had leather coverings for protection.
Mary Gale, a dear
sweet God-fearing child, like myself, wandered into the
meeting with an empty Kentucky Bourbon bottle, I figured
she just led some poor soul to the Lord. All kidding aside, I preached at the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission for years, and have experienced that first hand. God can break those chains!
The bottle Mary displayed was what-is-known- as a “Back-Bar Decanter” with its original, decorative glass stopper. It is lettered in gold leaf, “BOURBON” and on the paper label it says from “Stitzer-Weller Distillery, Louisville, KY.”
Juli Sheaffer has been doing some bottle hunting! One of her bottles reminded
me of my muck-raking
days! My grand parents lived in a pre- 1860's
house on a Kalamazoo River’s backwater, northwest of
Otsego. They had a pond next to their house. One day I
spotted an old bottle bottom sticking out of the pond
mud. It was an old Bluing bottle, just like the one Juli
found.I started raking in the mud at that location, and I dragged in several other ancient treasures! Isn’t it interesting how easy simple minded people like me are to entertain?
(Muck Raking is really fun!)
Juli also found an
A&P BRAND Worcestershire Sauce bottle! Delivering Michigan Cottage Cheese, my Dad called on several A&P stores.
Lynn Kozik Showed us a mint one-quart Johansen’s Dairy bottle from Constantine, Mich.
It is a clear bottle with black pyro glaze. On the reverse it says, Cottage Cheese, Buttermilk, Chocolate Milk, Cream.
Johansen’s Dairy
began operations in 1915 the creamery merged with
the Michigan Milk Producers Association in 1980. My great grandfather, on my mother’s side, George Anderson, after working as a
cook in the Barnum &
Bailey Circus, started the White Kitchen Restaurant in
Constantine in the 20's. What a beautiful old Victorian
town!Lynn Kozik also has a large half gallon Bonfoey’s Dairy bottle that is clear with red pyro glaze.
The Worline and Bonfoey Milk Station was started in 1920 by Carl Bonfoey. Milk was delivered by wagon pulled by the famous horse, “Brandy” who knew the route as good as the milkman. Early in the business large blocks of ice from local ice plants kept everything cold.
Bonfoey is the French Huguenot name for “very faithful” and they showed this through the business and for the community in general.
If you studied early Church history the French Huguenot Christians were nearly eliminated by the Roman Catholics under Augustine, and many fled to America for their lives. It was a horrific bloody time! Dark Ages Indeed!
Speaking of
burned-at-the stake, and sawn-and-quartered, Tim Hayes brought in a very sweet “Coffin style” Shoo-fly Flask! It is in a very-warm honey-amber with an applied single-collar top, which I rarely see! The difference between a Shoo-fly and a Coffin flask is the Shoo-fly has rounded smooth sides. The Coffin has more of a flat side. Now, if the flat side ‘is raised’ it is a strap-side coffin flask. I got this info off the Internet.
Tim is actually my go-too guy on flasks!
Scott Hendrichsen had a bunch of neat bottles from a recent dig.
Two were Chicago medicines. One is The Economical Drug Company, Chicago. And the
other, D.W. Family Pharmaceutical, Chicago.
They seem to blend into the background in Chicago
history. Kalamazoo, for example, had dozens of drug stores in the 1920's. Little Otsego had about 5 at one time. One problem with tracing them is they often changed owners and names!
One bottle Scott dug was a small little prescription sized bottle embossed,
Rex Oil, Pittsburgh, PA. Companies like Rex Oil went into the oil business because it came up from the ground like a bubbling crude . . . as the Beverly Hillbilly’s song goes, only they weren’t shooting at some food!
They were mining salt wells, when this worthless ozz started seeping into the valuable salt wells!
In northwestern
Pennsylvania, the Seneca tribe, collected seep-oil
for hundreds of years, using it as a salve, insect
repellent, and tonic. Europeans called the dark, gooey substance Seneca Oil and found it effective for treating sprains and rheumatism. It would also burn, but was unappealing as a lamp oil due to its unpleasant odor.
Samual Kier thought the oil contaminating his salt wells was similar to the “American Medicinal Oil” that his wife took for a serious illness. Chemical analysis proved the two oils were identical, and in 1852 Kier started marketing the oil from his wells as “Kier’s Petroleum, or Rock Oil.” Kier claimed his “medicine” (sold in 8 oz. jars for 50 cents) cured burns, ulcers, cholera, asthma, indigestion, rheumatism, and blindness.
What's in your medicine cabinet?
We have likely moved on to less effective medicine today because of slick marketing.
Yes, I do take Codd Liver Oil!
Leading Up To Easter Sunday. . . . .
Towards the end of His ministry. . .
the Jewish leaders were putting more and more pressure on Jesus to “Tone it down,” and, all the while He could feel the shadow of the cross that was right before Him.
“Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?” Asked Jesus as they picked up stones. “For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy and, because thou being a man makest Thyself God.”
Words like, “I and my father are one,” were not blasphemy on the Saviour’s lips. It was a simple declaration of fact. He was with the Father from the beginning, and all things were made by Him.
These Jewish leaders with their religious bigotry were about to be part of the most heinous crimes of all ages, the very consummation of all wickedness, the crucifixion of their Messiah.
Jesus could not tone down His claims. The scriptures bore Him witness, His sinless life bore Him witness. History has said a cosmic amen to His claims. Millions upon millions of Christians down through the ages have by-faith tested them and found them to be true.
A man once asked me, "If Jesus had been killed with a gun instead of a cross, would you wear a gun on that chain?”
I explained, "the cross wasn’t a weapon, and it was not for His crime that He died, it was done for my sin . . . He had none of His own. . . that cross was mine, He went there for me."
Jesus said, “No man taketh My life, but I lay it down Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again.”
My Pastor's Sunday message condensed into a tiny capsule: "Sin isn't the things we do, it is who we are."
In His last hours, Jesus was not searching for options. He said, "The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?"
He knew that the Father's hand is upon every circumstance. The Father did not inspire the hate and treachery, the crown of thorns and the rest . . . those tools of hate . . they were all from the powers of darkness.
Satan was moving all hell against the Son of God. Satan entered into Judas; he sifted Peter and fanned Jewish religious bigotry into a white heat like never before known.
Yet, because His Father so Loved the world . . . and our broken lives, He was obedient onto death.
All this for sinners! . . . . "it isn't the things we do, it is who we are. "
We need to be SAVED.
Now, it is the function of the Holy Spirit to make this all real to the sinner who turns to Christ for salvation. Were it not for the Spirit and His wondrous work, man could never come into the amazing inheritance which is his because of the finished work of a Crucified Saviour. Yes indeed, as Jesus said from the cross "It is Finished."
And, my debt was paid in full!
The Kalamazoo Antique
Bottle Club
Meets At the
Otsego Historic Society
Museum
Meeting date is
APRIL 8th
at 7:00 pm
The Museum is located at 218 N. Farmer St. Otsego, MI
Meeting starts at 7:00
Information
Meets At the
Otsego Historic Society
Museum
Meeting date is
APRIL 8th
at 7:00 pm
The Museum is located at 218 N. Farmer St. Otsego, MI
Meeting starts at 7:00
Information
