BACKGROUND:
I started this collection out in my callow youth because I figured, with all the dudes doing beer CANS, I could be a big frog in a small pond.
WRONG! I have since found out that there is a whole crown cap collecting society out there, with conventions, dues, newsletters, and collections covering not only beer caps but pop, associated alcohol, and and at least one guy who even takes caps off STP cans and the like, as long as they're crowns (for the uninitiated, these are the standard, crimp-edged bottle caps, as opposed to plastic or aluminum twist offs), and some of them number in the tens of thousands.
MY COLLECTION:
As I found this blog, I am at 449 caps, all beer or the near-to (such as cream ales and this ambiguous Smirnoff Ice). Up until a couple of months ago, when I discovered collectors sell all kinds of caps on e-bay, the vast majority of caps I had I found; Very few, amazingly enough, did I drink myself, since the collection had basically been in mothballs the majority of time between high school and now. Since then, I've added around 125 little guys through the magic of online auctions.
WHAT MAKES A DIFFERENT CAP?
Damn near any variation of color, text, trademark, etc.
WHAT IS MY CONDITION STANDARD?
If I can tell what it is, even if I have to angle it just right, or wet it to see words. Rust and flatness are no object; That doesn't mean I'll buy a totally trashed cap on e-bay, but I'll dance in the streets if I find one in the streets.
WHAT THE HELL IS THE FUN IN ALL THIS?
I can't really describe that; walk with me someday when I come across a new one, and look into my eyes at that moment, and you'll see.
I used to love spring, because I could get out and walk the roads and parking lots, searching. I used to imagine a magic magnet that I could attach to the car to suck up any caps we drove past; I'd still love to have a metal detector for that same purpose.
HOW IS IT MOUNTED AND ORGANIZED?
This is something I've been refining very recently. At the core is a little notebook that records them by brands, with physical descriptions. This has now been keyed to a notebook which has them (up to that point) in alphabetical order so I can find them not only in the little notebook but in what I'm keeping them in. And that is three (at this point) photo albums, duck-taped to the stiff page and with the plastic cover taped down when the page is full. I currently have 22 pages full, 4 rows of 5 caps, and about 40% of #23.
SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO HERE?
I"m going to put pictures of them on here, a few at a time, as well as update you all on the new conquests. If nothing else, it will keep me from boring you on Tilting At Windmills. To demonstrate, here's the start of the pictorial history of the Cap Collection!
You'll have to bear with; any one who's a regular over at TAW knows my camera is a real piece o' work, but it's what I have to work with. What you see before you is Book one, page (or board) one, the top two rows.
That mammoth thing you see in the leadoff spot is actually a third type of cap, a ring-pull. It belongs to a Mickeys malt liquor, although it has no brand ID on it. I have (I believe) three ring-pulls; the manufacturer on all is American Flange. As I sit here, I recall this being found in a dump- whether in a nearby woods or the one we found in the hills of Pokagon, I'm not sure.
Next to him is a very flat Andeker twist off. As I recall, Andeker was a cheap Anheuser-Busch knock-off, fairly popular in the early to mid seventies. This was a roadside find, surprise.
The remainder of the top row and the beginning of the bottom are Black Labels. My dad was a BL drinker when I was a baby, the pictures say; He was a PBR man by the time I can remember. The first and third ones are cork-lined; this is the oldest type of crown, and was phased out by the late 50's in most cases. The difference between the two is twofold; and because of my excellent photography (which I shall henceforth stop apologizing for), you'll have to take my word for it. The main difference is in the "B"- the first one has a double loop at the top, and the third has but a single loop. The other diff is a copyright mark at the end of the final "L"- a trait it shares in common with the mid-seventies non-cork between them. Why is there such an odd difference? Well, the first was manufactured by Chicago Crown Cap, the third by Armstrong- the same Armstrong who has moved from bottle caps into flooring these days. This is where the part about my dad drinking BL comes in: He used to have a 1937 Chevy, painted a pathetic combo of a lavender-blue-purple that legend has it he and a brother or buddy conjured up on one of his many intoxicated afternoons. By the time I was a kid, it made an appearance on the road about a half-hour at a time every second or third year. It was mainly a maternity room for stray cats by then, and it was in the cushions of its back seats where I found these two, along with others we shall see later.
The regular that sits between them is a crown cap & seal which I acquired, as I did so many, from Cliff Coulardot's tavern in downtown Zulu. We were regulars there, and it was sitting in the family room there that I first got the idea for this venture. The cap box was an old tin thing mounted to the wall in the hall between the family room and the bar side, right across from the men's room. What I wouldn't give to see that place again (as it was), with Cliff and Bill still harassing me... but I digress.
The two at the beginning of row two have different messages across the middle. The first says "Florida/union made"; the other says "union made/twist cap" Both are prizes from the trip to Florida I made with my big brother Tom's family back in 1977. Following them are two Ballantines: the first is a flat "spin pop-top" with just an arrow at the bottom (obviously a parking lot baby); the second is a "spin pop-top/ ale"
that is one of a handfull I acquired through illicit means (i.e. my nephew would go to the store with my sister, my mom, and me. He'd point out a cap, ask if I had one, and one PSSSH later...). The silver guy on the end is an Anheuser-Busch Natural Light ("Natty Light" before they discovered people might ask for them more often if they didn't need to make a speech to get it) with "FLORIDA" printed on it for tax paid. Another from that Florida trip; I believe I nearly doubled my collection in two weeks time back then.
Okay, since I was so long winded at the beginning, we'll stop for now. Next time, we'll have the rest of page one, at least, along with a discussion of how Blogger could make setting a blog up a LOT easier.
Bottoms up!
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