I wondered if you would ask???
It is a Yiddish adage which means, “Man makes his plans and God laughs.”
A Proverb along that same vein says,
“There are many plans in a man's heart; but only the counsel of the LORD, shall stand”
Proverbs 19:21
Here is the letter I just received from John Pastor:
“Hi, Al;
Mandy from the Fairgrounds called me to discuss where things stand. Unfortunately, as of now, it is still not possible for us to have a show at the fairgrounds - given current county and state restrictions.
It is also getting too late to pull it together for April, even if they reverse course.
As a result she and I discussed some alternatives for later in the year. We have a reserve hold on two dates. Those dates are:
“Saturday, August 21st ”
“Saturday, Sept. 18th “
At this point, even those dates are 'up in the air' depending on the virus and state limitations. It is still too early to make a decision. However, and unfortunately, we will need to cancel any plans for a show this spring at the fairgrounds.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Also, - please go ahead and spread the word that a spring show will not take place. "Stay tuned" for a possible summer or fall show.
Thanks, Al!”
Well friends, there you have it, we just keep taking it a day at a time. For me, looking at those dates, September would be a better bet. September puts us outside of the typical vacation window, and usually the weather is fair (“not too hot and not too cold . . . just right” said Goldilocks.)
Last Month
Every time I turn off this Word Perfect program, up pops an annoying advertisement suggesting I spend another $120.00 to upgrade my program. This is the 8th version I have used, and each one gets progressively worse!
Some of you may be too young to remember, but there was a time when a company built a loyal following, focusing on quality and customer satisfaction, and not a forced rollover! Whatever happened to that?
I once sold a new RV to a C.E.O. at Bendix. It was about the same time when us salesmen were required to sell all those annoying hidden extras. For example, “Do you want rubber tires on those steel wheels?”
Well, not quite that bad. We sold things like Credit Life Insurance, Scotchgard fabric and carpet protection, extended- warranty protection. . . . Anyway, this led to a discussion of how part of modern engineering includes a science of pre-planned product failure. My customer told me if they produced a brake lining that lasted too long . . . it was scrapped!
I left last month’s meeting, feeling much better about the future of our club!
To start with we had a very good turnout, in this horrible season of Covid 19!
Looking at my sign-up sheet, I am reminded of a whole host of beautiful smiling faces:
John Winkler, Lynn Winkler, Vincent Grossi, Len Shaeffer, Robert & Shannon Showmaker, Rob Knolle, Scott Hendrichsen, Kevin Siegfried, and me, fresh out on work release, Al Holden.
We had an election that we can all be proud of! None of that fraudulent mail-in garbage, and no voting machines tabulating the final count in China. We didn’t even put faith in unreliable paper ballots! Everything was done simply by raise of hand and the results notarized!
Even then, we took no chances! Every eligible voter had to sit on one hand . . . everything was done clean, and above board.
Rob Knolle campaigned hard, pouring in tons more money than his opposition, who, by the way, was noticeably absent!
Rob Knolle goes down in club history as the club’s sparkling brand-new President!
Please don’t take him down a gravel road until he is dented-up some!
Our new club Vice President, is my old pal, Iron Man Vinni! Vincent Grossi!
Vinni put up a fair fight because he is a really a lover not a fighter, just don’t get on his wrong side!
Hey Guys! I couldn’t be happier with our results!
So, somehow the Newsletter writer managed to get his belt hooked onto the back bumper of the election bus, and was dragged down the same road. For now, I am acting as treasurer . . . which is actually a violation of my probation.
So, then the truth comes to the surface about my old dear friend Chuck. I put all of the raffle tickets he sold into the drawing drum, and I was looking at the names. Well, he was selling tickets to you guys! He was supposed to get YOU to sell the tickets!
(I miss him) Someone asked, “Al, what do you miss about the old meeting room?”
I replied, “Chuck was there.”
I wish he were here to tease, he always expected that from me.
It’s all good, friends, ticket money is all money! I am going to suggest at this meeting we hold the raffle drawing coming up at the April club meeting. If that is agreed to, we need your cash and ticket stubs to start rolling in this month.
My on-hand count of raffle stubs, all that I currently have, is 270.
Also, Rob asked me for a copy of the club’s bylaws and mission statement. I was a little embarrassed to admit I had never seen them. I contacted several of our more senior members including Mark McNee and John Pastor who suggested contacting our F.O.H.B.C. Midwest Region Director, Steve Lang.
Steve had offered to help us in any way he could, when he heard of Chuck’s passing, and so he did!
Rob, our new president, found Steve’s suggestions on the F.O.H.B.C. site, and is working on new new club bylaws!
Rob also asked if I had registered us as a non-profit organization with the State of Confusion yet, which I did indeed, however as yet I have not heard back from them. I called Lansing and they explained to me that they are two months behind in most things.
Another topic Rob would like everyone’s feedback on, The possibility of having a Bottle Club Facebook page? So give it some thought, let’s toss it around like a pound of uncooked lean ground beef and see if it holds together. John Winkler can give us some great advice, because he already manages one. I know it is a big commitment. But maybe we have the right stuff for such as that? I do love to follow this stuff.
Some great bottles at the meeting!
Vincent found some very sweet, turn-of-the-century Grand Rapids, medicine bottles with some really cool graphics!
I have to be careful how I say that! It should read “Turn of last century” the difference could mean 121 years!
Two medicines from the HAZELTINE & PERKINS DRUG CO. They were labeled, amber glass, corked-top chemist bottles. One was “Oil Anise”
My grandmother loved Anise candy. She always kept a little pack of Sen~Sen breath fresheners in her purse, and if we got to stirring in church, she would give us a couple tiny, black, Sen- Sen to help reduce our tendency to sin-sin.
Sen~Sen is a product made from Anise Oil. It is considered the original breath freshener. The long term effects from consuming anise is yet unknown, my grandmother was nearly 100 years old when she passed. Sen~Sen style candies became popular in areas in Sweden, where her father, my great-grandfather, George Anderson was from. Sen~Sen is small semi-hard pieces with a sharp licorice flavor. Sen-Sen brand was developed in the late 1800s in America by T.B. Dunn and Co., perfume dealers in Rochester, New York.
Anise has been used as a spice and fragrance for at least 4,000 years. Recordings of its diuretic use and treatment of digestive problems and toothache are seen in medical texts from this era. In ancient Greek history, writings explain how anise helps breathing, relieves pain, provokes urine, and eases thirst. The oil has been used commercially here since the 1800s. The fragrance is used in food, soap, creams, and perfumes. Anise often is added to licorice candy or used as "licorice"
Anise is used as a flavoring in food; dairy products, gelatins, puddings, meats, and candies. It is sold as a spice, and the seeds are used as a breath freshener. The essential oil is used medicinally as well as in perfume, soaps, and sachets.
Another Hazeltine & Perkins
“Oil Pennyroyal” Pennyroyal is a plant. The oil and leaves are used to make medicine.
Despite serious safety concerns, pennyroyal is used for colds, pneumonia, and other breathing problems. It is also used for stomach pains, gas, intestinal disorders, and liver and gallbladder problems.
BUT! It is commonly used as an active ingredient in flea collars!
Applied to the skin it kills germs. Frankly, (I suspect germs are the only thing holding me together!) It keeps insects away, and treats skin diseases. It is also used topically for gout, venomous bites, and mouth sores and as a flea-killing bath.
Scott Hendrichsen, who
makes a living toting heavy packages all day, brought
in boxes of glass treasures! One of my favorite bottles, ever since I first my saw first one,
“Dr. L. Q. C. Wishart’s PINE TREE TAR CORDIAL PATENT 1859.” The first time I put mention of one of these, in the club newsletter, many years ago, I was contacted by Dr. Wishart’s great, granddaughter who was looking for one! You would be surprised how often that sort of thing happens.
They really are a very handsome 1800's medicine bottle found in several shades of green Scott’s is in a teal-up green with one panel embossed with a beautiful tall pine tree.
Scott also showed off a paneled style
medicine, embossed Northwestern Bitters. This
bottle is in clear with a small corner missing. But
get this; the damage may not matter as it is the only
one known! I’m being no expert but I think at one
point our country went through a “Bitters Craze!” I
sometimes wonder if someone could obtain bottles and
something to fill them with, containing alcohol, you
could get rich in the bitters business fast? I think
Bitters was the local Parson’s (for a medicinal
purpose) hootch? 
Scott showed us another of
my favorites, a teal blue bottle of C.W. Merchant’s
Gargling Oil. This concoction was a liniment salve
made up by Merchant in 1833 from a batch of petroleum
jelly, soap, ammonia water, oil of amber, iodine
tincture, benzine, and water. Not only could you rub
it on for most any disorder, you could also swallow a
few spoonfuls! It was advertised to work for nearly
everything ailing both man and beast! One of
Merchant’s famous ads, mocking the growing interest in
the Darwinism at the time, stated; (picturing an ape)
If I am Darwin’s grandpapa, It follows don’t you see,
That what is good for a man and beast is doubly good
for me.(Can I hear an amen, brother?)
Several years ago I reached a decision not to fight the atheists’ evolution crowd. I am all for freedom in America. If they believe their ancestors slithered out of a swamp and swung from the trees, I will give them that.
Sometimes, like in the case of New York’s outspoken Governor Andrew Cuomo, he really looks the part, of that, there is no denying. However, many of us are clearly products of Intelligent Design. Godly created, and Godly redeemed.
I wish I had the time and space to cover every one of the great bottles that we saw. I will try and get as many of them pictured on the web site as possible.
One beautiful blob-top aqua torpedo beer bottle Scott showed is a beautiful sparkling gem!
It is; YOUNG'S BOTANIC BREWERY, Ltd. OF HANLEY STAFFORSHIRE.
Considered a small company, in the world of U.K. breweries, Young & Co.'s Brewery, P.L.C. (better known as Young's) consists of the oldest continuously operating brewery in England as well as a chain of 200 pubs and hotels. Brewing a variety of some 20 in-house label lager beers, ales, stouts, and bitters, but also producing a limited number of wine and spirits labels.
It all started in 1581! The company operated as
Ram Brewery. (1581 folks!)
In 1672, a family named Draper purchased Ram Brewery.
In 1763, the Drapers sell to Thomas Tritton.
Consider this; My Great, Great X4 Grandfather, Martin Harter II, from Northhampton County Pennsylvania, joined up as a Sargent in the 2nd Battalion of the Northampton County Militia, to fight under the command of George Washington in the Revolutionary war.
And, at that same era, the British breweries were struggling to find ways to keep corked beer bottles from going flat in the long trip to the new world. Their solution was, not to change the top of the bottle, but rather the bottom! If the bottle had to lie on its side, the cork stayed wet . . . problem solved! This bottle was part of that history!
This brewery still survives and in 2000 it was distributed through small craft brewers who continue the formula and heritage in keeping the name alive.
I showed these at the last meeting. My mother gave them to be recently.
My father drove for the Michigan Cottage
Cheese Company, my grandfather's
business, throughout the 50's
He was ever the evangelical
disciple for the Lord at all the stores
he called upon. Most of the other
drivers and customers respected that, at
least to his face. Like dad, many of the
guys he dealt-with were raising a new
crop of baby-boomers as well.
They knew dad avoided drinking and smoking. From time to time, he would be gifted from a new father, one of these German made cigars . . . which in truth . . . are beautiful gentleman's hankies. Mom saved these!
Dad always kept a hanky handy in his pocket, a pencil behind his ear, and a toothpick in his mouth.
Another guy I really miss! My dad was
6'6" and a very strong man! My stepdad,
Howard Norton, grew with my father. My
father was a farm boy from day one. The
two guys went everywhere together. Hod
told me, when just horsing around, when
they bailed hay, "Your dad could throw a
full bail of hay completely over a
loaded hay wagon!"
Dad loved fresh apples. We would be somewhere where he could get an apple, and with his thumbs in the stem area, at the top of the apple he could split one in half like it had been cut in two with a knife, then hand me half. Try doing that. . . I cannot do it! To this day I still try!
Hod and my dad loved to ride Harley's, even in the winter! In 1948 Dad road this bike to California! Remember, the roads were not the same as as they are today!
They knew dad avoided drinking and smoking. From time to time, he would be gifted from a new father, one of these German made cigars . . . which in truth . . . are beautiful gentleman's hankies. Mom saved these!
Dad always kept a hanky handy in his pocket, a pencil behind his ear, and a toothpick in his mouth.
Another guy I really miss! My dad was
6'6" and a very strong man! My stepdad,
Howard Norton, grew with my father. My
father was a farm boy from day one. The
two guys went everywhere together. Hod
told me, when just horsing around, when
they bailed hay, "Your dad could throw a
full bail of hay completely over a
loaded hay wagon!" Dad loved fresh apples. We would be somewhere where he could get an apple, and with his thumbs in the stem area, at the top of the apple he could split one in half like it had been cut in two with a knife, then hand me half. Try doing that. . . I cannot do it! To this day I still try!
Hod and my dad loved to ride Harley's, even in the winter! In 1948 Dad road this bike to California! Remember, the roads were not the same as as they are today!
Kalamazoo
Antique Bottle Club
We meet at the
Otsego Historic Society Museum
Meeting date is MARCH 9th at 7:00
Meeting starts at 7:00
e-mail: prostock@net-link.net
Phone 269-685-1776
We meet at the
Otsego Historic Society Museum
Meeting date is MARCH 9th at 7:00
Meeting starts at 7:00
e-mail: prostock@net-link.net
Phone 269-685-1776
TO THE MANY FACES OF TREASURE HUNTING