THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407290226
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Earlier this century, 60 or more dairies operated in the Norfolk area delivering fresh milk in returnable bottles to Tidewater residents.
Today, collector Robert Lang owns a milk bottle from every one of them. In fact, the retired longshoreman has 200 or more local milk bottles stored away at his house in Pungo.
He's spent 10 years building his collection, discovering them in all sorts of places. One bottle remains his favorite.
``This is the one everybody and his brother is crazy about,'' Lang said during a recent tour of his unofficial museum. ``It's a gum tree root growing right around the neck of a bottle.''
The bottle is identified as coming from ``W.W. Oliver & Sons Lynnhaven, Va.'' Lang found the bottle in the woods and sawed the root away from the tree, cleaned the bottle and shellacked the root. Now the oddity is on prominent display in his living room.
Lang is also quite proud of his White House vinegar bottle collection, much of which is showcased in the dining room. He began collecting vinegar bottles only three years ago but already has 65 different ones on hand.
``They made all different types of bottles,'' he said. ``I'll never get them all.''
The 61-year-old Lang said he believes he has the most extensive collection of White House vinegar bottles in Virginia Beach.
It seems that years ago, commercial vinegar bottles were not designed to be hidden away in the kitchen cabinet but rather displayed in a place of prominence on the table, like a vinegar cruet would be. Bottle styles changed periodically and folks would get a new design almost as often as they bought vinegar.
His cutest bottles are various sizes of apple-shaped jugs. The clear bottles are true to the apple form and even have a leaf embossed on top.
``Here's one of the most fascinating,'' Lang said. ``It's a bottle in the shape of a lighthouse down to the bricks and windows.''
Another vinegar bottle is shaped like a pitcher and is large enough to be used as a pitcher once the vinegar's gone. A large 1910 vinegar jug has wooden handles. Two others are shaped like rolling pins.
``After you finished the vinegar, you could add ice water to the rolling pin,'' Land said, ``and the cold kept your pastry from sticking.''
Lang has still more oddities in his bottle collection. One is a cobalt blue bottle that once held a commercial eye wash. The glass stopper was also designed to be an eye cup. An Old Sol bleach bottle is shaped like an elephant.
That's not all. He has scores of soft drink bottles, too. Among them are 15 different Coke bottles. One has two rows of embossed stars around it. Another is made of brown glass and is identified as coming from Norfolk. Still another has four sides, and he has an eight-sided Pepsi bottle.
Although Lang buys, sells and trades bottles (you can reach him at 426-6637), he has found most of his bottles the hard way - by digging them up. He has a secret location in old Princess Anne that has yielded most of his treasures.
``You see, in the old days, there was no trash pick-up,'' Lang said. ``Folks just threw their bottles back in the woods. You'd be amazed at what's buried in the ground.''
Lang goes digging two or three days a week and he now has 500 to 1,000 bottles crammed in his dining room, living room, garage and attic. He's even started a glass salt and pepper shaker collection for his wife, Zelda.
``I can't wait until he gets home to see what he has,'' Zelda Lang said. ``Once you get my husband started, he just keeps going!''
P.S. A THREE-DAY NEEDLEWORK WORKSHOP for children ages 9 and older will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., beginning Tuesday at the Francis Land House. The $50 fee includes an instructional booklet and reproduction needleworking supplies. Call 340-1732 to register.
INTERACTIVE PROGRAMS ON STINGRAYS for children ages 3 to 5 will take place at 9 a.m. or 10:45 a.m. Wednesday at the Virginia Marine Science Museum. The fee is $4 for museum members and $6 for non-members. Call 437-4949 for registration information. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow@infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW
Robert Lang of Pungo displays part of his collection of bottles,
including his favorite find, a milk bottle pictured at right. ``It's
a gum tree root growing right around the neck of a bottle,'' he
said.
by CNB