Discovery Date: January 21, 2018
Discovery Location: 10 or 12 inches deep in my back yard
Item Creation Date: 1986
I'm a little grossed out by this, and I considered leaving it in the ground. But in the interest of science, I pulled it out and looked it up. Did you know you can date a can by its logo? Sure you can. You can do most anything on the internet. Diet Pepsi cans used this logo in 1986 (the centered NutriSweet logo is the giveaway), making this a thirty-plus year-old can.
So why is this nasty old can so interesting that I'd make it the third post on my blog? It's interesting because it wasn't my yard back in 1986. It wasn't anyone's yard back then. Construction in our neighborhood began in the late 1990's. Prior to then, it was farmland and forest. I know that by looking at old aerial photographs.
So what's a can like this doing buried a foot deep? I didn't mention the thing about the soil, either. On top of this can was red clay, common in this area and used as fill dirt. Under this can was nice rich black soil. If this was a can from 1999, I'd say a construction worker threw it down, and then it was covered with fill dirt while grading the land. But this can is 13 years older than that. I still like the idea of it being covered with fill dirt, though, because of the red clay versus black soil. Perhaps there was a different construction project going on here in the 80's. Maybe the farmer was leveling the land for the purpose of planting a field, or moving dirt to form an irrigation ditch. Or, maybe it actually was a construction worker in the 1990's. Only it wouldn't be his Diet Pepsi can; perhaps he found it on the property and gave it a toss into the bulldozer's bucket.
It's worth mentioning that I also found a metal bucket in this very same location and at the same depth. I'll post about that at a different time.
UPDATE: Today I was out digging in that same location, and I found a second 1986 Diet Pepsi can. It was interesting the first time. A second can, though? Not so much. I tossed it in the recycling bin on the way back to the house. But hey, if I find a 1989 Diet Pepsi can... that's good history right there.