MIDWEST COLLECTOR JAN LEE
email:  [email protected]

 As a boy I grew up in an area on the outskirts of a larger town about an hour southwest of Chicago. There were many abandoned limestone quarries with wooded areas. Some dated back as far as the civil war. Back then kids swam, fished and hunted squirrels, etc. My favorite spot bordered an old tuberculosis sanitarium on land taken from an old farm dating to the 1870s forest preserve land and one of those old quarries. Accessed by short walk down an abandoned railroad line.                                               I had packrat tendencies then as I started bringing home insulators from the abandoned railroad right of way. The year this got serious was 1970. I was 14 and found my first green "pisos cure for consumption" sticking out of a cinder pile while hunting. 
Having developed an "eye" for it I found other dumps in that area. Saw a bottle show advertised on a poster and went, finally realizing how huge this field is. Then came the Internet and information became so easily available. I started meeting people, buying a few too. 
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 I've enjoyed countless hours Researching and Digging. I have made trips and,probably spent more than I should, and met some great people. Utah Collectors has shown me your collections and you guys have got some really great stuff. Rick and Debbie are great people, and I wish those ghost towns were a little closer to me. Keep on digging guys, you never know what will pop up.
I didn't realize that the hillside 20 ft tall maybe 75 ft long was covered with bottles and trash from about 1900 to 1960. Hunting was forgotten as I took it all in. Soon I was digging and there is no turning back. Not just Piso's of course, but Solan's liniment, ketchup, Little Bo Peep, the drugstore bottles with the fancy scroll embossed shoulders, slug plate milk bottles, then broken bitters bottles, and blob top local beers. 
My collection is still kind of general. Anymore, I lean towards cures, bitters and a few flasks. But if you see a not so old item in my window, why? I like to spice up the visual effect with some color too. When the morning sun streams in esp. In fall and early winter those things glow like jewels and the light show really begins.