An Unexpected Holiday Surprise

This year’s Thanksgiving morning started off pretty great. I got to the ranch, had a quick breakfast, then Dad and I split up to get morning feeding done quickly before heading over to my older brother’s house for an early Thanksgiving meal. Dad took care of feeding the steers on top of the hill, and I got to feed my bottle kid, Mary, as well as all the other youngsters that live around the barn. We were on a mission; Dad and I were feeding efficiently since we had a timeframe to keep up with. Unbeknownst to us, though, I was about to make a crazy discovery that would make us late to dinner.

While I was filling up buckets of water, I noticed a large piece of siding that had fallen off the barn. As I went to grab it, my heart fluttered. With the siding gone, the inside of the barn’s walls was exposed, and I could see they were full of treasures. For some context, I am a fan of old, funky things in general, but I am a huge fan of old things that tell a microscopic piece of the story of our ranch, which was formerly homesteaded in 1891. The walls of this portion of the barn were full of old rusted Olympia beer cans, another Spokane beer company called Bohemian Beer, and the stars of the show—two vintage contoured Coke bottles. In total, I got about two five-gallon buckets of bottles and cans. Maybe this is where the kids hid their beer while hiding from their parents, haha.

I think old beer cans are really cool, but I don’t drink much beer. I do love Coke, though, so once I saw the base of these Coke bottles poking out the side of the wall, I hoped they were not broken—and they weren’t! These bottles became even more sacred with every detail discovered about them. I put them in their own bucket so as not to get rattled and scratched, then put it in the shop for safekeeping while I hopped in the tractor to feed big bales. As soon as I was done feeding and saying “Happy Thanksgiving” to my cow, Rose, I rushed to the house to start cleaning off my bottles—and this is where things got crazy.

I am not an organized spiritual person; I don’t personally study any religion or have many set-in-stone beliefs about what all is going on beyond our realm. I am not against any or judge others for their beliefs; I just kind of go with the flow and strive to be my best self to others as well as myself. But whatever greater power there is out there may have decided to speak to me through these Coke bottles the other day.

As I was cleaning them off, I got immeasurably excited to discover that printed clearly on the base of one of the bottles were the words “Colfax Wash.” “Wow!” I yelled. “This is like a small-town relic from the ranch!” What was printed on the next bottle made all my hair stand on end. Printed on the base, it read “Seattle Wash.” These bottles date back to 1942 and 1949, according to their patent numbers as well as the corresponding manufacturing numbers printed on the side of the bottle. Is it just a coincidence that one bottle is originally from Seattle, just like my family is originally from Seattle, before we decided to move to Colfax and follow our dream, just like the second Coke bottle is from Colfax? Or is this the universe telling us we are doing the right thing here? Either way, I will cherish these bottles and keep them forever as a symbol of how special this place is.

—Ryley Griffiths