Uncovering a Forgotten Home Secret Hidden in Plain Sight
August 23, 2024
Source: Reddit
I recall how I would while away hot summer vacations at my grandparents’ farm, a house which has several stories to tell in every groaning boards and chipped walls. Growing up, I always enjoyed the various trinkets that were present on the premises; nails driven into fence posts, horseshoes mounted on house beams, and the odd bottle buried in the wall of the vegetable garden. I would want to know more about these strange artifacts, and my grandmother would tell me stories of past ways and beliefs, rational and irrational.
It wasn’t until several years later that I was to learn that this was by no means an unusual occurrence in finding glass bottles set into old brick work. Just like the bottles I came across at my grandparents’ home, these strange artifacts that were these glass windows into the past also had their own tales to narrate.
Perhaps one of the simplest reasons for these glass bottles is the war against household pests. There was a time before pesticide and the common man had to come up with ways and means of controlling pests. Ants were a common problem and to trap them, glass bottles were used frequently. The idea was simple: You have to pour half of a bottle with something sweet or sticky and screw it into the foundation and ants will come get it. Once inside the ants could not get out thus killing most of them and ensuring that there were few ants around the house.
It was actually a very clever idea, if you asked me. The bottle served as a kind of pocket, and the cementing into the foundation made it so that it would be useful and not in the way. Reflecting on it, it was a throwback to an era in which citizens used what was available to them in the house in dealing with various challenges. It is a rather trivial example of how frugality was a part of people’s lives in the 18th century.
However, not all the accounts can be attributed to practicality. My grandmother, who lived in an old house, always told me that many items had two uses: the real one and the one based on people’s fears. This brings us to a more mysterious possibility: This perception was that these bottles would help in repelling evil spirits especially those of cats.
Today it might seem rather peculiar, but people were quite superstitious and black cats were not considered to be very lucky. In some areas, people had it that cats were, in fact, spirits that would infiltrate a home and cause trouble. To keep away these bad spirits people may have cemented bottles into the foundation of buildings. Likely, as horseshoes were nailed above doors to attract prosperity, these bottles might have acted as protectors of the house from evil spirits.
This folklore element enriches the story with the elements of the culture. It contains the anxieties and dreams, and the worldview of people who lived in a society where science and magic coexisted. One can only picture multitudes of families carrying these practices from generation to another, reassured that they were protecting their homes in many ways.
Although ant traps and superstition are quite convincing, there are also more rational reasons. In some cases, glass bottles might have been used for ventilation that is to create openings in the wall of the foundation for the circulation of air to ensure that there is no accumulation of moisture. Some people have believed that the bottles were just for the aesthetics and to give the building some colors or design. All the same, glass bottles may glimmer, particularly when exposed to sunlight.
It could also be that the bottles were incorporated by the builder as a quirky detail that the homeowner simply could not resist putting into their house. At a time when people used to construct their own houses, it is quite possible that such features were used as a way of personalizing the house.
As much as I appreciate these stories, what I like most is that they demonstrate how people were able to innovative in the old days. Whether for pest control, superstition, ventilation or decoration, these glass bottles are evidence of how people made use of what was available to them. They did not have the luxury of dashing to the shop to buy a ready-made product; they had to contemplate on how to solve a particular problem using what they had.
To this end, this sense of inventiveness was in sync with the culture of the time. The people embraced simplicity and usefulness while at the same time, they cling to some customs that made them associated with their heritage and beliefs. Life became a search for ways on how to meet the challenges of the day without violating the people’s beliefs.
Nowadays, when we come across such oddities that were once part of people’s lives, we at least get a taste of what those people’s lives must have been like. Glass bottles buried in foundations are not just a bizarre architectural element—they are a glimpse into the past and the way people used to live and think.
It’s easy to smile when you think about the different versions of their purpose: for enticing ants, repelling spirits or simply to enhance the aesthetics of the environment. For whichever reason, these bottles sustained themselves, much as the homes they were incorporated into. And perhaps that is the most uplifting message of all – that these small fragments of our pasts tell us that creativity and heritage can endure, just as the structures they are embedded within do.
The next time you encounter one of these bottles, never forget the history that is packed in it. It could have been used to scoop ants, ward off cats or even just to create a splash of colour on a wall, and it remains a fascinating relic of the past.