LIVING
TREASURE
HUNT Lifelong Newton County resident Joseph Malcom’s passion for vintage bottles has kept him in the dirt for decades and allowed him to keep alive a tradition passed down to him by his father. by CHRIS BRIDGES Joseph Malcom gets his love of bottle collecting honestly. The hobby was passed down to the lifelong Newton County resident by his father. Malcom continued the tradition and even took it to new heights after his father’s death in 1980. He believes he owns the largest Coca-Cola bottle collection in the state, and those who have seen it would be hard-pressed to dispute the claim.
58 The Newton
“My dad was a digger,” Malcom said. “He loved going to old dumps with a shovel and pick. I remember he took me to a dump site in Social Circle and said we were going to dig for treasure.” That father-son interaction remains entrenched in his memory. “On that trip, we started finding old bottles, and it just got in my blood,” Malcom said. “I view it as finding treasure in the ground. My father and I would go to different locations, and we always seemed to find a new treasure.” Malcom met other bottle collecting enthusiasts along the way. “We just enjoy talking about what we find and then what we might sell, buy or trade,” he said. For the 60-year-old, the actual digging process has always been the fun part of the hobby, although it also results in the most work. Malcom goes to local libraries to research where old trash sites were and then plans his next dig accordingly. Vintage soda bottles comprise the largest part of his collection. He has an extensive assortment of bottles going back to 1900. During his treasure digs, Malcom has also unearthed vintage medicine bottles, as well as poison and ink bottles. They often feature cork tops. The soda pop bottles are significant in the collector
