bottles in the barn...

Living in a house built in 1864 has its challenges...easy-to-crack plaster walls, tiny closets, and the occasional slanted floor (drop a pencil and watch it roll!)

It also has its delightful positives...fireplaces in the kitchen, dining room, and what was probably a front parlor at one time. There's wood wainscoting and floor to ceiling windows...old houses have character, and that's what I love. For as long as I can remember, I've loved old things and been interested in them...old houses, old music, old movies, old ways, and I've always loved history. It's just how I am wired, as they say.

While this was originally a working farm with horses, milk cows, sheep, and pigs, over the years it moved on to become a dairy farm, and lastly a horse farm. It's not unusual to find horse shoes, square head nails, even an old cross-cut saw when going through the barns. Recently I decided it was time to tidy up the smaller barn. This one tends to store the garden tools, outdoor holiday decorations, and any other assortment of "things" that just don't seem to belong anywhere else.

So with renewed determination, I set out to organize and sort. I never know what I'll find when I begin digging in these old buildings...this one in particular has the farmers handwriting on the wall along with phone numbers, wooden pegs, and beams that look as if they were chiseled with an axe.

On a dusty shelf, I found a collection of bottles, so I carefully washed them, did some research, and enjoyed a little history lesson from my own homestead.

Here they are before a sudsy, warm bath...

A little digging told me this bottle, which warns...

"Federal law forbids sale or reuse of this bottle"

was on all liquor bottles between 1935 and 1964 and was meant to discourage the use of the empty bottles being filled with homemade "moonshine" which would then be sold. Evidently very common during Prohibition!

                                           

The large, clear bottle on the right is a vintage Arkansas Glass jug - I'm not sure what might have been inside, I like to think it was something wholesome like apple cider!

The amber bottle in the center was made by Illinois glass...1915 to 1929, and the smaller clear jar is a Hazel-Atlas canning jar, probably dating from 1915.

All washed and cleaned, I put them together, I just felt like they needed to be safe inside:

I also found a 1945 Pepsi bottle, a 1947 Coke bottle, and a fun, polka-dot Cotton Club creme soda bottle, but I can't pin down the year on it. Lots of fun, the soda bottles will be filled with cheery flowers for a summertime centerpiece.

Now, this bottle was NOT brought inside...the markings are:

3iv

I soon found out that marking meant it was a chemist apothecary bottle..and yes, I should have had gloves on...the photo was taken before I realized there was liquid inside.  YES liquid!

Back to the barn, in a safe spot, it went...hmmm, what to do?

And that's my tale from the farm today...vintage bottles once filled with soda, "moonshine", hopefully apple cider, and well, who knows about that last one! 

source: Susan Branch