Dumping Stories
The cans below all came from the best dump I ever dug. During the Summer of 1991, while vacationing in New England with my family, we stopped for a couple of days to visit family in Sterling, Massachusetts. Early one morning I rode my bike through the countryside looking for dumps. Sandwiched between an older home and a field was a patch of woods which looked like it might hold some possibilities since a farmer's two track led through it. Before dismounting my bike my eyes were met with the tell-tale signs of conetops - those dark eyed spouts staring up from a camouflage of leaves. Even better, they were crowntainers. Too bad it was mostly a surface dump. Scraping through, I unearthed a number of Hanley Ale crowntainers, both versions of it. After about 10 minutes of this I felt I had thoroughly salvaged would I could. Looking up to leave I noticed that I was about 30 feet away from a huge pile of rust. So engrossed in the crowntainers, I had not even noticed the big dump. Wow, it was stacked high with low profile cones. It became obvious, this beer drinker favored Brockert Ale and Harvard Ale. There were other cans here too, almost all Ale cans. I removed what I could in the short period of time I had available. Later that I day, I returned for another hour but it was only partially dug when I had to resume our family vacation.
At home, I soaked the cans and took some of the better examples to show a couple of dumping buddies. This was the year of the New Jersey canvention and it took no prodding on my part to convince my friend Glenn to accompany me to Massachusetts prior to canvention. We met in Connecticut on Labor Day and proceeded to Massachusetts and the dump. We arrived in the mid morning and dug for several hours. Great can after great can came out of this dump. At one point I pulled a green j-spout out and could not identify it. Glenn immediately knew what it was, having prepared himself for the possibility of a Brockert Porter among all the Brockert Ales. Not long after, I found another so we both could have one. Quarts surfaced as well. Glenn found a very nice Indian Queen quart. The one I found was not nearly as nice and it is the one I have pictured here. Two quarts in almost beyond recognition condition were a Harvard Beer and Brockert Ale. There were Hanley Ale, Pickwick and Schmidt quarts, Mulehead Ale OI, Harvard Beer OI and Harvard Ale OI flats, Old Topper, Brockert Ale and Porter, Fitzgerald Ale, Hanley Ale, Indian Queen and Schmidt J-Spouts along with a few crowntainers. We left mid-afternoon and located one more small dump on the way back to Connecticut. It also contained Brockert Ales. Two dumps in the same day with Brockert Ales! The remainder of the can hunting was uneventful. It would be hard to top the one dump again.
|
|||||||
