Wow! Can you believe it? We have survived yet again another Michigan winter! The Bottle show is that early sign of spring that we all look for!
           Are you ready for some REAL climate change?

            I have learned that an easier way to create the monthly newsletter, is by using the previous year’s newsletter, as a template. It makes building the newsletter faster and easier. That is unless, along with new content,  I miss changing little things like  dates! That can be bad!

          When using a former year’s March newsletter, I get a chance to review things that seemed important to us last year.  It is fun for me to look back.
          For example, in the March 2024 newsletter I  commented about what a mild winter we had, and how I was already spotting  spring flowers in early march!

         Well, I don’t know about you, I wouldn’t call this past 2024-25 winter mild! True enough, at least we didn’t have paralyzing blizzards like 1967 and 1978, but it has been bitter cold! There was one week, at the end of February, when our furnace rarely stopped running.

         Back in early December, I paid a snow plowing bill for my store parking lot for about $400.00!  Today, I have a bill for January and February for about $1,000.00 more! I am afraid if I don’t  pay it they will bring the snow back!
 
       I would kid around with my dad saying, “I would rather be the poorest man in Florida, than the richest man in Michigan.”
    I never dreamed that one day I would be the poorest man in Michigan!

LAST MEETING    
    Hey Folks, if you missed it, we had a big turnout at the February meeting! It sure makes it nice to have all our friends from the Grand Rapids area join and support us!
    Vincent has be keeping up with the meeting’s attendance sign-in sheet. Here is the list of happy faces we all enjoyed seeing!     
   Eric Berrington, Kelly Bobbit, Ashley Carlson, Steve DeBoode,
Gary Dean, Mary Gale, Vincent Grossi, Tim Hayes, Judy Hayes, Scott Hendrichsen, Al Holden, Terry Hopkins (NEW), Gordy Hubenet,
Sue Karbowski, Lynn Kozik, (Mark McNee Short Stay), Elmer Ogg,
Kevin Siegfried, Brian Wages, Katie Wages, and Dave Wilkins.
Total of 21 club members !

    I was told that my old  pal, Mark McNee, ducked-in and waddled-out just before I got there! Since he retired, he has been working as a highly classified secret agent for the Department Of Government Efficiency, so, he must keep a low profile.
    As the song goes,
♬“There is a man who leads a life of danger! With everyone he meets . . . he stays a stranger, with every move he makes, another chance he takes! Odds are he won’t live to see tomorrow!
  ♬  Secret agent man!”♬

        We met a new member at the last meeting, and I will note . . . he was smiling! Welcome to, Terry Hopkins!
  
        As for taking care of  business, we dabbled in some very important  club business.
        We are traveling back in time, in an attempt to shore up the club’s beginning foundation. Going back to our roots so to speak, as best as possible, and rebuilding some misplaced files.

        We are working on fresh a remake of the club mission statement, and the club’s bylaws.  I provided President, Scott Hendrichsen, with a copy of the Southwest Michigan Seek & Search Club (Metal Detecting Club) bylaws. And, it also sounded like Steve DeBoode from the Grand Rapids club provided a copy of the Grand Rapids Bottle Club’s by-laws  as well. With those documents, used as a template, we have good stuff to work with.
    
         Vincent is doing a good job putting together the 44th Annual
 Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Show. We are getting a peek at all the hard work John Pastor has gone through all these years!

    Ashley Carlson contacted me just before the last meeting saying, the club had an opportunity for an article to be written about the bottle club, in an upcoming community magazine. She was wondering if I would be able to give her some tidbits or club history for her to include.
      I love the wonderful things Ashley has already done for this club . . . she is gifted! I didn’t want to disappoint her, but it was just too short notice for me.
    Earlier our President, Scott,  told me that he would be bringing along a collection of newspaper articles that he picked up, back  when he purchased Chuck Parker’s collection. I  figured, from that material, Ashley could build something. I felt bad, but I just had too many things pulling at me from several directions at that time.

    I would like to remind all of our club members that we have a digital archive of club newsletters going back way back, about 23 years worth . . . well over 250 newsletters. You can find the link on the club web page at:
   www.kalamazoobottleclub.org
        I use a simple old-school “html” editor to craft these digital web pages, so things do look a little cluttered.  I hope to tidy things up as time allows.
  
          I have been doing the newsletters for so many years, that there clearly is plenty of repetition to be found! Like this following story for example.
 
      This addresses the early days for the club.
     
         In the early 60's my father wanted, in the worse way, to be his own boss. He was working as route manager for his father-in-law delivering Michigan Cottage Cheese products.
     His route-team was in-charge of stores in northern Indiana. I was in 4th and 5th grade in school, when he would take me on the delivery route with him during summer break.
    I loved nothing more in the whole world, than spending time with my dad! He had several routine stops, so I was in and out of several stores with him. I met so many nice people!
    For the longest time I wanted to someday become a butcher! The smaller markets we called on,  their main coolers, where we put our product, was in the meat department.

    The timing of running the route, from-store-to-store, was like clockwork. When we were finished with a big delivery in Elkhart, it was usually lunch time, and we would stop at a little dinner located  at the corner of Bristol Street and Interstate-19.
    They had a lunch counter with those tall chairs, which I thought was cooler than a table or a booth. We were “Truck Drivers” after all!

     Most of the  people were regulars and dad knew most by first name. One man, named, Jack, usually sat with us.
    My dad would share his dream of one day being in business for himself. In fact,  he was already working two jobs, working for Don MacLeod Real Estate in Plainwell  part time.
  
 
Jack mentioned to my dad, “Curt, you should look into getting into the travel trailer and camper business. Start out with a couple camping trailers to rent, this  is going to be a growing industry.”
    Well, to skip along, I want to first mention, that  guy name “Jack” was a young startup, a dreamer just like my dad. His name was Jack Coleman who became a giant in the RV business in his family company, and they remained friends.


One of our first trailers a 1960 Franklin Cab-Over

    It took some time for my folks to settle on a good location to start a RV sales lot. After a couple moves they purchased the location on M-89 where my store is today. At the time, I had to change schools from Plainwell to Otsego, I was entering the 6th grade.

    Dad and Mom’s business took off. But until it did, my dad continued to peddle cottage cheese, and between caring for 5 kids (eventually 8 kids) my mom showed people the trailers!
    Eventually, things grew to the point where more sales lot room would be nice. A large house and land adjoining our property came up for sale . . . my parents managed to buy it. It was a very early, giant, farm house.

 Dad had plans to tear it down to expand the sales lot. When they applied for permits, the Allegan County Historical Society pleaded with him not to destroy it. They claimed it was one of the first farmsteads in Allegan County!
        So, the old house was kept intact, and eventually two apartments were built on the lower level, and two more were planned for the upper level.   
  
     When the property was sold, it was FULL of stuff. It had been unoccupied for decades! They bought in an auctioneer, but the sale was focused on antique farm equipment and old automotive parts in the out-buildings. Some items of furniture were moved out of the house but it was still full of old dusty stuff!

    The large room in the rear of the house was a big kitchen. It was so interesting to me. It had all of the electrical wiring exposed, and the light switches were like round twist switches.
    Throughout the house there were exposed iron pipes were left over from gas lighting era.
  
      In the upstairs bedrooms, were chamber closets, with wooden outhouse-style seat holes and a place to slide in a chamber pot.

        In the attic, the center roof member was a long pine log that was shaved into shape, with much of the log’s bark still in place. The rafters were also hand-shaved and the joinery was wooden pins.
  
     My best friend and I were working for my father, cleaning trailers, mowing grass and what my dad called, “General Clean-up.”
    We used a jalopy of a pickup to haul trash back to a private dump in a ravine by the Kalamazoo River. I lettered the old truck’s door,
      “Al & Tim’s General Cleanup.”
    One day, dad made the decision to start cleaning up that old house. My friend, Tim, had some experience, or at least was aware of value in some antiques . . . I had no clue.
   
          So, we hatched a plan! We cleaned out the first floor level spic-and-span! The living room curtains were made of a light lace material that would turn to dust at the lightest touch! We found the quickest way to remove them was with a shop vac!
     Besides the huge kitchen, the living room was also large. There were 3 bedrooms on the lower level.
 
       The lower level still had several pieces of wooden furniture, like end tables, stands and lamps.
          But the basement, which was our next move, was full of antique bottles and crockery! I’m not talking antique bottles, as someone who didn’t know an antique bottle from an “Old Bottle” (At the time I didn’t) They were truly hand- finished pre-1900's bottles! Some of the clutter dated back to the first occupants, which we were told was about 1820's!

         We had the main floor looking as good as possible.  But, now we are thinking, hey,  maybe there is some money to be made here???
    Dad gave us permission to set up an antique shop! I got out my sign-painting brush, and from a large scrap of plywood I painted a two-sided sign,
“Ye Old Antique Shop”
          Before I mounted the sign out by the road, we spent several hours building shelves, cleaning  and stocking a display of all our wares.

    We never considered for one moment that we had no clue as to what to price things!
 If we could get a quarter out of the sale of an old bottle good. If one went for a dollar, better yet!

    I only recall having one customer, her name was Mrs. Earl Wallace, an antique dealer from Otsego. She carefully picked-up and looked-over each item, then, she carefully put each one back were it was displayed . . . showing no real sign of interest . . . not in anything! 
    Just as she was about to leave, she turned and said,
“Boys , I will give you $40.00 for everything.”
    It was at that moment when we decided to retire from the antique business. Fortunes are not always made that easy!

    Moving ahead about 10 years: I am starting a little sideline within my father’s RV business, selling a few metal detectors and accessories. As a detector dealer, I also started selling different treasure hunting magazines.
    There was, Lost Treasure, Treasure Search, Western Treasures, Treasures Found, and other publications. In those days these magazines were full of amazing stories about people finding lost or hidden valuables! Antique bottles were featured, very often, in every issue!  
    One day, in the early 80's, two guys visited my shop with an interest in buying metal detectors, Jack Short and Ernie Lawson. We very quickly struck up a friendship.  A rich friendship that lasted for years. Ernie Lawson, was in charge of purchasing office furniture and supplies at Upjohn. Jack Short, his best buddy, owned his own commercial photography studio.
    By 1979 they had been digging and searching for antique bottles for a few years already. As they went to popular sites to dig, they found more and more people out searching as well. New friendships soon developed with like minded people, and in 1979 the the Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club was born.
 







FIRST KALAMAZOO ANTIQUE  BOTTLE SHOW





 




 





















Three wonderful people!
Left: Ernie Lawson
Center: Mark McNee
Right:  Duane Nickerson

The light bulb was one dug in an early Kalamazoo Dump, by Ernie Lawson.
 It is an actual Thomas Edison Bulb that was found in a wooden case. I have this bulb today . . . and it still lights.




      I saw Jack and Ernie often at my shop, and soon they got other bottle diggers interested in metal detecting, like, Jerry Churchill and his son Mark.
    They kept after me to go on a dig, or come to a Bottle Club meeting, but honestly, I was so busy with my work, and I had 3 young children.
  
     I do recall one time when Jack and Ernie were excited about a dig they were working. They invited me to join them.  On a Saturday afternoon, I was passing by that location  just north of Mosel near the Kalamazoo River, so I turned along the old rail grade, and followed it back until I saw their car.  Chuck Parker was there as well.
    The rail track had been abandoned for years. For some reason, I think it may have belonged to the Interurban Transit Authority which ran through Plainwell then over to Douglas.

The area had been left to grow over, and as I came to a clearing where everyone was digging, I could not believe my eyes!
    The train tracks were built over an original dump! The diggers were finding some great early bottles! The success was great! As the diggers followed the dump’s mother-lode, it led them to undermine the rail tracks!

    Honestly, I cannot tell you the number of times I wish I had taken pictures! This scene had a almost spooky appearance! Imagine seeing iron train rail tracks, still attached to wooden rail ties, passing along through thin air! Now picture guys with shovels pails and rakes digging under these ghost tracks!
 
      I’ve told all these stories before. Jack Short was a major photographer / contributor to the Kalamazoo Gazette. One day the editor suggested doing a feature article on bottle digging and the club. Jack and Ernie were so devoted to the hobby, they included a phone number where anyone could be reach them to answer bottle or club questions.

    Ernie and Jack both agreed, that for the most part, the phone number was a mistake. People were calling in to ask the value of common trash . . . the phone wouldn’t stop ringing!
    Just as they were getting tired of the whole thing, a guy called them who claimed he found bottles in his back yard when he was digging a drain field.
    Now, let me add at this point, locating and digging outhouse pits wasn’t a big thing in our area, these Kalamazoo guys were pretty much dump diggers up to this point.   
    “So, you found antique bottles in your back yard?”
To the guys this sounds suspicious!
      “Can you describe the bottles? Is there any embossing?”
So, the guy went on to clearly described a cabin bitters, not one but two, embossed “Best Bitters in America!”

    This is the holy grail to a Kalamazoo collector! This has to be a trick!

      Someone from the club must be having a little fun with the guys!  Finally, our Dynamic Duo are convinced the guy was telling them the truth!
   
      Sure enough! And, neither guy felt like they could pay a fair value for these bottles, not and stay married! So they called in fellow club member, a very advanced collector, Joe Widman who purchased the rare and valuable bottles.
    To put it bluntly, the Club was started because of a common interest among friends who simply love to search for treasure.
 
    I think of so many wonderful friends who have gone on before. My friend Ernie was the one who really saw the truly deeper value here. He saw far beyond the highest treasure-bottle’s value, and even deeper than the flesh- and-blood digger standing by him in dirty coveralls. Ernie saw in every man an eternal soul. Very few people who loved Ernie was not asked the question, “Do you know Jesus as your Saviour?”
I’ll ask on his behalf . . do you?         

The Meeting theme is  Easter, Spring, Spiritual and Recent Finds!
   There will be a $5.00 Table!   

Phone 269-685-1776
    Web Address
www.kalamazoobottleclub.org