The Time Capsule

Many old buildings are actually time capsules.

The thing is, they often don’t reveal their secrets all at once.

For example, our first contractor found this bottle when he dismantled our porch nearly two years ago.

What’s this? you say. A broken bottle?

Well, as I tried to show above, we saw the words “Natrona Bottling Company” on the back.

So let’s start here, at the Natrona Bottling Company’s own website. Because luckily for us, they still operate, only six miles from Parnassus. Per this website, the company started in 1904.

Next, Jonathan searched eBay, where he learned that bottles such as these dated from the 1950’s – 1960’s. Frostie was a brand out of Baltimore, and during that time period it contracted with several companies to bottle it. Including Natrona Bottling Company.

You can still purchase Frostie Root Beer.

Natrona Bottling Company no longer bottles for Frostie, but luckily for us it currently does bottle its own root beer today. Jonathan and I drink it, out of glass bottles much thinner than the one found under our porch.

Last week I thought that I was so slick for using the alias of the “Prime” family for the original folks who owned our house.  Then Jonathan came home, read my post, and told me a few years ago we posted the Prime family’s actual names.  The “Prime” family is actually the Alter family, and here is where Jonathan wrote all about them. Also, if any Alter family members ever find this website, we would love to hear more about Frank Alter and his clan.

I mention this because now I know where the Alters lived, worshipped, and were buried. The Alter family occupied our house until the 1950’s,  when a new family purchased it and proceeded to live here for several decades.

We believe that the Frostie Root Beer bottle dated from while one of these two families lived here. The contractor who found this bottle also found part of a hacksaw. Perhaps, on a an August morning, somebody drank a root beer while he (or she) worked on the house. The bottle, slippery with condensation, slipped out of this person’s hand and rolled under our porch. Perhaps.