The Nesquehoning Historical Society recently welcomed two privy diggers to its monthly meeting.

The meeting was held in the basement of the First Baptist Church of Nesquehoning.A special presentation by Jim Mikovich and Joe Slakoper discussed their experiences in digging privies. A "privy" is another name for an "outhouse."Jim and Joe brought an extensive collection of artifacts from their many digs and put them on display for the audience.The two told stories about their bottle collections.Slakoper told the story of how, as a teenager, he became interested in privy digging by seeing an older crew of men digging for bottles in an old-fashioned dump. He was only 14 years old at the time.Slakoper said that he tried it for a while, but, eventually lost interest.Many years later, around 2002, while working on a rooftop, he observed some people who were digging for bottles in what used to be a privy. Slakoper asked them how they knew that there used to be an outhouse in the spot that they were digging. They explained that houses that have stone foundations normally had outhouses in the backyard.Coincidentally, Mikovich had just purchased an old house in Coaldale and he was intrigued to see if it also might have bottles in the area where the privy once stood. So that evening, after work ended, he started digging around at his house. It turned out that his yard was loaded with bottles.Mikovich explained that it is often possible to guess from the number of individual privies in a particular house's backyard whether a person was rich or poor. This was because a wealthy person could afford to hire a "honey dipper" to scoop out the contents of their existing outhouse once it got to be too full.Alternatively, a poor person would just tell "one of their eight kids" to go out in the backyard and dig a hole for a new privy.Some members of the audience had already had their backyards dug up by the duo.Mikovich explained that there is a special process that they use when digging a privy to make sure that there is only minimal disruption to the smoothness of the grass in the yard. The process starts by laying out several large tarps around the area to be dug. Then they cut out just the top layer of sod. That top layer is set apart in a special place in order to replace it once the dig is done.Next, all of the underlying soil is carefully dug out and placed on the tarps. This way, the soil and the sod can be replaced without creating any irregularities or dirty spots in the grass.After their talk, the pair answered questions.When Jim was asked why the people in the old times didn't just recycle their bottles for money, he said that it may have been a side effect of the anti-alcohol Temperance Movement of the 1800s and early 1900s.Many of the old "medicine" bottles contained alcohol or other powerful drugs. One example was Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup. This was sold as a medicine that was used to calm teething babies. But, in reality, it contained opium, so many babies were slowly poisoned by the "medicine" and sometimes even died.There are not only bottles that can be found during a privy dig. Besides beer, soda and medicine bottles, Joe and Jim have also found toothbrushes, chamber pots, clay pipes, clay dolls, an eyewash cup, and an occasional whiskey flask.Some of the bottles that have been found in Nesquehoning digs included the name of the local manufacturer. For example: McFadden, McGeehan, Malarkey, Jerome Bianao, Chas Muhauler, and John McCaffrey.When asked how they determine where in a yard to dig for a privy, Slakoper explained that it is a combination of clues that they look for. There is also a special tool that is used to probe where an outhouse might have been. The tool looks like a 5-foot long corkscrew.Slakoper estimated that he has completed 1,500 outhouse digs in the last 15 years since he started digging regularly. Mikovich, on the other hand, only started to get his hands dirty with digging about five years ago, so he does not have quite the same record.Following the talk, it was also announced that the 501c3 application for the Nesquehoning Historical Society has been officially approved. Tax-deductible donations may now be sent to the society at 114 W. Catawissa St., Nesquehoning.