cool find under our steps

[fransean]

We rented a jackhammer to get rid of our leaning, sinking side steps. After cleaning up the "remains" with the neighbor kids helping we found a very small bottle with some writing on it.
"Mrs Winslow's soothing syrup"
I googled the writing along with the company name and came up with the fact that this was a very old teething remedy given to babies which contained morphine and alcohol and tons of sugar The company was forced to remove the morphine from the formula somewhere between 1906 and 1912 so the bottle is from somewhere between 1880 and that time frame.
We were told the house was built in 1918 now I am wondering if it is older!

I wonder what else is buried in the yard and under the house?
Bev

[Old Vet]

If you would find it there are many things buried in your yard or under the house. Save the bottle and sell it either at an auction or on E-bay. Some of them will pay allot if you wright down the information you got and put it with it.

[myheaven]

I want to see a picture of the bottle.

[Macybaby]

When we were pulling out the baseboard upstairs, we found a postcard from 1904. That part of the house was suppose to have been built in 1925. The postcard was a notification that the suit they had ordered was ready to ship - not the type of thing someone would keep for a memento for 20 years and then lose it behind the baseboard.

But people do save strange things at times.

We did find newspaper from 1925 crammed into the edges under the stairway in that section. It was used to help plug some holes before the top edge was put on. We didn't find very much while fixing up our old house, but I saved what we did find and it will stay with the house for the next owners.

Cathy

[HermitJohn]

Darn, at first glance, thought you had found a jackhammer under the steps, then I put my glasses on.....

[MullersLaneFarm]

When we tore off the old kitchen (an addition to the house), we found a ratty old copy of the Ladies Home Journal dated 1903.

When we built our new kitchen addition, we put a current phone book, our business cards and the signature of everyone in the family behind a wall.

[jbowyer01]

Originally Posted by MullersLaneFarm

When we tore off the old kitchen (an addition to the house), we found a ratty old copy of the Ladies Home Journal dated 1903.

When we built our new kitchen addition, we put a current phone book, our business cards and the signature of everyone in the family behind a wall.

Thats a wonderful idea.
I wish I had thought to do something like that when we renovated our home!

[cowcreekgeeks]

My brother was redoing the insulation in his attic and found a stash of Playboy magazines from the fifties and sixties. He was so excited to find them! He went on a business trip and his wife threw them out.

[jlxian]

I love finding little trinkets that give me an idea of what the people were like who lived here before us.

I found a long hat pin in the crawlspace under the kitchen part of our house. You can access this area from the basement and I've imagined the lady of the house kept her gardening hat and hat pin handy there.

I tend to look down all the time I'm walking in and around our yard and have found lots and lots of bits and pieces of broken dishes, especially after a rain. And a TON of broken crock jar chunks.

The poor babies who received Mrs Winslows Soothing syrup! Glad to hear they finally banned it. Have fun hunting treasures!

[Cash]

Back in the old days it wasn't at all unusual for people to use their backyard or a side yard as a refuse dump for trash. Today bottle hunters hoard that information because they're such good sources of collectibles.

We had friends who bought a nice house out in the country, and when they went to clean up the back yard they found a large trash disposal area along the edge of the lawn. It was full of old crockery and bottles and such. We urged them to mine it for bottles (this ws back when old bottles were the latest fad), but they just called in two or three truckloads of loam and covered the whole thing.

[MullersLaneFarm]

All we've found in the ground is whiskey bottles!

We located our first pig pen that we found out quickly was the old farm dump... the pigs dug up all kinds of things, including pieces of a toilet.

[CamM]

There's a whole ravine near my house full of trash. Some of the surface stuff looks like it could be from the fifties. I can't imagine how far back in time digging would take you.

[fransean]

We have now found a newspaper from 1944 rolled up behind one of the radiators while removing some carpeting. We also have found large coke syrup bottles in the crawl space but unfortunately they broke.
I like the idea of putting a time capsule of sorts of our own in the wall before we hang the new drywall.
This area is so old, the town was founded in 1668 (I believe) that you never know what we might find!
Happy hunting everyone

Bev

[Hopeful Lady]

I love stories like this. Bev the coke syrup glass may still be worth something. I dont know for sure but I would check into it. People go nuts for Coke products from the past.

When dh and I lost everything in Katrina our house was still standing but we had to totally gut it. There was a place in the bathroom that we had to pour some concrete under the tub. When we did my dh wrote in the concrete "God protects Katrina 08/29/2005".

Hopeful Lady ( Used to be Lavndrgrl)

[ejagno]

Originally Posted by Hopeful Lady

I love stories like this. Bev the coke syrup glass may still be worth something. I dont know for sure but I would check into it. People go nuts for Coke products from the past.

When dh and I lost everything in Katrina our house was still standing but we had to totally gut it. There was a place in the bathroom that we had to pour some concrete under the tub. When we did my dh wrote in the concrete "God protects Katrina 08/29/2005".

Hopeful Lady ( Used to be Lavndrgrl)

We lost our home in Rita. When we rebuilt a dear friend who is also a retired master carpenter brought over truckloads of wood that was pulled out of our JC Penney store as it was heavily damaged also. It was in their dumpster. We closed in what was formerly our back patio and made it a "Man Cave" with wide screen tv, bar, poker table and all using this wood. The walls and stairs are equisite and have the original stamps on them from JC Penney. The fireplace mantel, bar, bench seats and wall units were all made from the wooden tables used to display men's clothing in their stores complete with the claw feet design and all.

Years ago we had a house in town near the old military base. In the attic we found the original title,deed and paperwork to the home. We were floored at the blatent discrimination held within these documents. It was so shocking to read that Negroes were not allowed to enter through the front door and were only able to enter the premises through the service entry. It stated that they were to eat only in the service kitchen or on the back porch. The rules and consequences of violations were clearly laid out. It was truly a sad part of our history brought forth in black and white, literally.

[Hopeful Lady]

Ejagno,

It is amazing what you can turn situations into. Sounds like a nice room.

Take care fellow survivor,
Hopeful L

[rean]

We tore our old farmhouse down, and got to the main floor joists. Written in rudimentary cursive was the name "Dena", then the alphabet, over and over again. Also "George Washington", "Abraham Lincoln", and Dena's name again. So we knew that Dena was our elderly neighbor that had just passed away when we moved out here 20 years ago. She was 95 when she died. So figuring that she was around 8 when she wrote that, it put our house to being built around 1903. We took the board and gave it to her son. He was so thrilled that he hung it in his house.