Thats it?....A simple Old Timey Bottle stopper!! Well Knock me down and beat me silly with a sand scoop!
Although, this sort of adds to the mystery of this item? How old is it? Why are they only found in the water? How come nobody has found them in general old dirt hunting, privy digging, bottle dumps, etc?
I remember my Grandpa told me back during Prohibition and earlier, He and his little Brother Chuck built a boat out of slab wood they procured from one of the many lumbermills around here, then they would go around and collect empty bottles from the 'speak easies' and pole that boat full of empties up river where the suppliers were set up....The guy would fill them, and they took them back to the places where the empties came from, and were remitted some form of financial recompense for their arduous freighting efforts...There was some sort of deal set up between the supplier and reseller, and my Gpaw was merely a 'mule' of sorts....Like a Walmart truck driver I suppose, without the goofy blue vest and name tag......
Still, the MKG river is one tough current to pole a boat upstream on! Like an all night kind of gig! In a heavy slab boat? Imagine! You certainly learn real fast how to work the bends and take advantage of the slack current areas! ...The proliferation of available outboard motors, rendered poling a boat another skill lost to technological mechanical advances...Its really hard to find a good pole boy nowadays in fact...Impossible even...
My Great Uncle Chuck used to kill 3 deer per year up in that MKG lower estuary with a single shot drop block .22....Said His Mom traded eggs and bought him only 3 shells! So my Gpaw would pole him on up in there and drop him off! He was expected to sit out there along a trail all night if need be, and kill a deer with a single well placed close range shot right in the ear, and get it home without getting caught somehow...He was about 12 at the time! I guess it was a form of 'Pokemon' back then??
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My Gpaw, being the older Brother, naturally made Chuck sit out there in the swamp to do the dirty work while he would sleep, smoke, and relax in the boat...Hunting back then wasnt for Sport...it was for survival!
Great Uncle Chuck said it was really hard to find a deer back then, every body and their Brother was after them, they were rare! Now they are running around all over the place and I often wonder what he would think of this bounty when I see one in the backyard nibbling unconcerned on the Wifes flowers!!...
Me and my Cousin know how to pole a boat! Between us, I bet we have nearly 2000 miles of river and bayou boat poling experience! At night! Yeah...I guess this would look good on a resume?...We are so poor we couldnt ever afford a motor, a familial trait evidently, but if you ever need somebody to push a boat with a stick from 'Point A to B', I'm your gosh darned Huckle Bearer!..
In my late 50's I still have a really nice hand made ash pole ready to deploy as a propulsion device retirement plan, and a really old Remington .22 bolt action, so I'm doing better than most 401k's I figure..I actually can whip myself up a boat out of slabs in about half a day, or easily steal one in an urgent time pinch if it comes to it!.
Thats a really cool old broken bottle with a nice color there Dee!..Actually beautiful in its own way...Like us, Its busted up, empty, discarded, and pretty damned old! Oh the stories it could tell! I'd give you a dollar for it! laughing:
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