LETTERS
to the Editor
A Letter to Ralph (really, to Janet) Over the last decade or two, a kind person will comment, “Thank you, Ralph, for the article on …” Ah, I remember it. While I was writing it, in the middle of the afternoon and still in my bathrobe, Janet Finch was upstairs, vacuuming the house.
Shedding Some Light on Midnight Digging Hi, John, I appreciate you getting back to me regarding my bottle story submission. I realize what a busy job you have. I continue to enjoy reading the Antique Bottle and Glass Collector after many years of subscribing. I can’t help but recollect about the heyday of bottle collecting in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s and ’70s. I lived in Menlo Park then, and my buddy, Jeff, and I spent many postmidnight hours digging in various redevelopment projects in San Francisco in the early ’70s. A few of our many finds are shown in the photo (above). Keep producing that great magazine. Regards, Paul Ackerman Reno, Nevada P.S. Speaking of the holiday season, I remember when I belonged to the San Mateo Antique Bottle Club way back in 1973. Bottle clubs were all around the Bay Area. I brought a bottle cake to our Christmas Party. It consisted of two layers, with the second layer supported by three blob top sodas! What fun.
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
And someone will say, “Thank you for …” Yes, that was the day Janet ran all the errands, balanced the budget, paid the bills, and I think that was the day she assembled the two porch gliders. (Challenged, she probably could have done it with a hairpin. TV’s Angus MacGyver pales next to her.) And “Thank you, Ralph, for the article on …” I remember that one, too. Janet had taken all the photos for the story, proofread the article, and fixed my computer the day it did god-knows-what. I remember all the days while I sit in my bathrobe and write while she: makes breakfast, lunch or dinner (sometimes when a dozen people are about to drop by), or shovels the snow off the two porches, or goes out every morning, often in her bathrobe‚ to feed the deer, the squirrels, the chipmunks, the birds and every other creature that roams by. And I remember the days that Janet and John Pastor spent putting the catalog together for the recent sales of my target ball collection. And Janet, I thank YOU. I couldn’t do it without you. In fact, as I creep up on birthday Number 80, I couldn’t do anything without you.
Interesting Round Bottom Soda with Embossed Bottle Hi, Folks, Above is a photo of a round bottom bottle from Boston. It has a very small round bottom inside the embossed logo. Logo reads as follows inside diamond: Comstock Gove & Co. 30 Canal St. Boston Sparkling Ginger Ale Bottle is 8” tall with cork and Putnam stopper. How about running an article about Round Bottoms?
Sincerely, your not-so-helpful pal,
Best to all,
Ralph Finch Farmington Hills, Michigan
Howard Wilcox Brewster, Massachusetts
