The 150-year-old Pickle – January 11, 1961

When looking at old newspapers on microfilm, I’m always amazed at the interesting stories that Lorain Journal reporters were able to dig up back in the 1950s and 60s. 

Here’s a good example. Written by Dick DiLuciano, the story is about a 150-year old pickle growing in a bottle that was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Adam Blakely, a Lorain couple.

The article ran in the paper on January 11, 1961.

As noted in the article, the pickle was planted by the great-grandfather of Mrs. Blakely. However, she was more interested in the bottle than the pickle! “It’s a bottle that used to hold a product called ‘Dr. C. Pope’s Sarsparilla,” she observed.

“My parents gave the pickle to me. If my grandfather, who passed it on to my parents, were still alive he would be 106 years old and he got the pickle from his father!” she noted.

Well, the pickle – if it’s still around – would be the 210-year-old pickle today. I wonder if the Blakely kids still have it? Was there a custody battle over it?

I hope not. It would have been quite a, er, pickle.

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Courtesy of antiquemedicines.com, here’s a bottle that just might be similar to the one owned by the Blakelys. 

The description of the bottle said that it had “the faint aroma of a gherkin.”

Just kidding!