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My Great Grandmother’s Garbage & The Adams Family

When I was at Tulipwood a few weeks ago, I got to see all of the carnage left over from a massive wind storm a few months ago. Lots of trees went down like dominoes and let’s just say it’s going to take a very long time to clean up the firewood.

But something interesting happened when all of the trees came up by their roots… can you see it?

It all goes back to the Adams family. No, it really does. Except I’m pretty sure the children’s names weren’t Wednesday and Pugsley. I’m pretty sure, not 100% sure.

You see, my great grandparents bought Tulipwood from the Adams family. And back in those days they would dump their garbage in a certain spot on the land. And then trees grew over it and it disappeared into obscurity.

Until 100 years later, say around March 2010, when a lot of wet snow was followed by a lot of high winds. Then the garbage came back in all its glory, along with the tree roots.

The reason I know all of this, is because when I was home visiting, I mentioned to Grandma P. that I was discovering some interesting things in the roots of this particular tree and she exclaimed: “That’s the dump! From the Adams family!”

And then her mother began to use it for many years after.

Now it’s a bit of a treasure chest. Take a look:

Blue and white china.

Blue glass.

A cut crystal vase.

Green glass.

A cool wavy vase top.

White porcelain cup.

Little glass cup.

Green medicine or oil bottle.

Some other clear glass bottle from a beverage.

Little mason jars…

I wonder what this one was for…

This one is my favorite! Blue medicine bottle I suppose…

Bone marrow mixed in there!

So I took some of my findings to the sink and gave them a very good wash. These babies hadn’t seen daylight in about 100 years. Don’t ask about the eggs. There are always eggs in the sink waiting to be washed. So many eggs, so many bird droppings, so little time.

And then I was trying to decide what to do with all of these treasures… a lot of the glass is broken, but I’m thinking of making a mosaic table out of them. What do you think?

For now, I did this:

If you’re a master as mosaics, now is the time to give me a tutorial. I’m guessing that one of those craft stores is in my future…

4 Comments

  • Nat Alea from OK
    Posted June 8, 2010 at 8:18 pm

    Wow! That would make a beautiful screen saver. I love old bottles.

  • Laurel
    Posted June 13, 2010 at 8:00 pm

    Where I grew up we had a field, and every time we drug the field with the tractor we'd find all sorts of great stuff. Tons of bottles, we even found a rusty washboard once. It was fun to go down to the dumping spot and see what treasures we could find after the field had been tilled.

    • Georgia
      Posted June 14, 2010 at 11:18 pm

      How fun! I'm hoping I can do something cool with all the findings… At the very least perch them on the mantle.

  • Emily S
    Posted March 23, 2011 at 5:25 am

    Oh! I love those, esp. that blue bottle you mentioned. I used to love going to the fields and abondoned little home sites (you know the ones, with the brick fireplace and maybe some porch stairs as the only thing still standing,….., in the thickets around fields ) and searching for ‘treasures’. 🙂

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