Dave Emett
Dave has passed away and will be sorely missed by all of us!
This is his story: I have had many thousands of bottles over the years and some bring me wonderful memories. I got started in the bottles when I used to walk home from work. I walked by the canal behind the old Fish and Game building on North Temple and they had just dredged the canal leaving hundreds of old bottles in the greasy, smelly mud. If you have ever dug in the area, you know what I mean by smelly. I hauled home dozens of old bottles, cleaning them and showing them off. The best of the bunch was an old amber Dickey Chemist bottle from San Francisco. The rest of the bottles were really just junk and bottles that had been rejected from previous digs in the area. I still have the bottle and I think the smell has finally worn from my hands. Who knows what disease I may get someday from digging in that fowl smelling muck. I remember the first Utah hutchinson soda I found. I didn't really dig it as it was in a dirt pile on the old Morton Meadows dump site. Some local collectors had leased the property from the school board to dig bottles. They brought in a back hoe and each day they would dig holes in the old dump revealing thousands of old bottles, crocks and old junk. My neighbor, Paul Richardson, and I would go over after they left and go through the piles of dirt looking for things they missed. I found this Denhalter U.T. soda and it kind of hooked me on collecting the old sodas where I specialized for a few years. This was way back in about 1970 or 71 and I still have that beat up old soda. The first bitters I dug was not what you would think it would be. I was digging in an old pit near the North Temple viaduct which appeared to have been dug previously. I found one corner of the hole with a few bottles. Out popped a Prickly Ash Bitters in very good condition. I have never dug another one since although I have found quite a few bitters over the years. I still have that bottle too. Dave has searched throughout the country for specific Utah Items. He is probably Utah's authority on local Bottles and Crockery and has been a friend to all collectors. CHECK OUT THE CROCKERY PAGE! |
Dave's Wish List
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