Rare Find from the past

A few years ago I was beginning the long clean-up of a private dumping site on my ranch. A big ditch left over from hydraulic gold mining had been used as a dump site for well over a hundred years. I began to notice that the upper reaches of the ditch contained material from the days of horses and very old cars. Farther down the ditch as time passed, more modern relics of the past began to appear from the 1940's and 1950's. The ditch was pretty well filled up by the 1980's and I asked that it stop being used as an unofficial dump site as the legal issues of such was going to be a big problem should I elect to sell the property in the future. With steep sides the seasonal rains would erode some of the soil each year exposing material dumped long ago. More rain storms meant more things appearing long before my ownership of the property.

During the beginning of the cleaning process, it was wet and some new sliding of the sides had just happened. Mostly old cans and bottles along with shoes and other household trash that could not be burned or if in the dry season, no fires allowed and everything was dumped as needed. I happened to notice a white object in the red clay soil and pulled out a rectal syringe nozzle. Next to it was the remains of what appeared to be a clear plastic round bulb of about 8 ounces of capacity. The hole in the bulb fit the nozzle perfectly.

A year or two later the rains had exposed more new material and this time I found a piece of red rubber syringe tubing with a nice lever style clamp. I dug around in the general area but could not find the rest of the syringe set.

From then on, each rain season, I look to see what new items from the past have been exposed as the clean-up continues. I use a garden cultivator to speed digging through the past which seems to work well. I have also found some old glass bottles of very early vintage.

Years ago small towns had their small dumping sites that were not advertised but were just a word of mouth situation and often times lasted for many years. Today one of these sites can reveal a great deal of the past including what rubber goods were in use at the time.

That,s a great find, I used to haunt my locale tip all the time when I was a kid. Found some great stuff.

There is an unbelievable set on ebay, vintage irrigator, potty, bed pan set. Adult and child. Somebody had a real sense of humor and recall of a nursing past.

I suspect most of us get viral emails of stuff from friends and acquaintances with jokes, sob stories, funny photos, etc., and yesterday my wife got one from a very weird friend of hers that started with a photo of a kit with the headline, "Can you name this strange old tool?!!!", followed by a photo (which I'd paste in here if it was accepted). The tool consisted of a bellows and various attachments and accessories, all in a solid, well-made looking wooden box. Below the photo was the following:

"I thought you would enjoy this educational moment in American history. Can you name this strange old tool? Do you know what it is? Tobacco Smoke Enemas (1750s - 1810s)The tobacco enema was used to infuse tobacco smoke into a patient's rectum for various medical purposes, primarily the resuscitation of drowning victims.A rectal tube inserted into the anus was connected to a fumigator and bellows that forced the smoke towards the rectum.The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration. Doubts about the credibility of tobacco enemas led to the popular phrase, blowing smoke up your ass. Amazingly, it is still in constant use in Canberra, Australia by the best senators and representatives money can buy."

I'm not saying my wife's friend is weird because she sent something enema related. Nuff said.