Sunday, November 24, 2013

Legendary Digger & Collector Passes

It is with great sadness I have to report that our hobby has lost another long time legendary digger/collector. Dave Acorne of Petaluma California passed away unexpectedly on Nov. 2nd earlier this month. Dave was an avid Petaluma historian and digger in is home town for most of his life. He dug many great bottles including a green “Wonser’s Indian Root Bitters” and an aqua “Wm. Goeppert & Son Steam Beer” the later of which was stolen from him and never recovered. Dave was a good guy & quite the character whom I dug with on numerous occasions over the years. His passion for digging, collecting and local history were unequaled. Rest in peace my friend, at least now a certain beer collector won’t have to look over his shoulder anymore for fear of you trying to get your stolen Goeppert’s back.

4 comments:

  1. That is sad, I also knew him and bought quite a few things from him when he was digging a bunch. Dave agonized over knowing who had his stolen bottle for years even after going to court over it. It’s also sad there’s someone in the hobby with no ethics or morals that can lie to a judge then get away with it and knowingly keep someone's stolen bottle.

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  2. Ethics and Morals, let me tell you about my recent trip over to Nevada last week. I met an elderly couple in Ely Nevada, these Folks are very old and very POOR, they have an empty house and very little food! They told me about 2 men that came from California and were so generous, they gave them $ 100, one hundred dollars for a Grass Green IXL. They showed me a picture of the bottle, extremely whittled, deep grass green, my guess is it would be worth 4-5k, outstanding example. And the old DEEP
    POCKETS couldn't even cough up a thousand to help these old folks out. Getting a great deal is one thing, FUCKING old people is another!

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  3. I am sorry to hear about Dave, it seems lately more and more people in the hobby are disappearing.
    It is a shame that we have individuals in this hobby that have no morals, many times these things
    are done by people who have more money then they know what to do with, unfortunately i will never
    know what its like to have endless money, what I dig or have dug is what i can afford and if it were
    stolen from me, well, God help you!

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  4. Dug with Dave several times over in his hometown of Petaluma. Bought some nice bottles from him as well. Always a stand-up guy to deal with,,.. Remember getting the phone call from him and hearing him so excited after digging the green Wonsers. It was really something, as he had dug a broken- in- place example and glued it back together just a yr earlier. Now, he had found a mint green example (only the second example known) !! I still have the picture hanging on my bottle room bulletin board, that he took of the bottle 20 yrs ago.... R.I.P. Dave

    AP

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