Dogfish archivist excited to see big bottle of hand sanitizer

In recognition of its 30th birthday, Dogfish Head recently threw itself a weekend-long party. The event concluded with a gathering at its brewery in Milton, where an archivist collected and cataloged items of interest from the company’s history.

I stopped by because I was interested in the archival work for two reasons. First, I wanted to donate a large, unopened bottle of hand sanitizer and an associated box the Cape Gazette had left over from when the company started producing it at the height of COVID. Second, I wanted to see what other people donated. 

Andrew Campbell has been a staff archivist for History Factory for three years. He had a noticeable smile on his face when I showed him the large bottle of hand sanitizer. He had seen smaller bottles, but not a full-fledged 750 mL bottle.

This is a part of Dogfish history, said Campbell. It helps fill in the gap during the COVID times, he said.

Campbell said people had been stopping by to chat and drop things off all afternoon. He said it was really cool, as people donated coasters, flyers, menus, newspaper articles and a bunch of other different stuff.

It’s important for companies to preserve their own history. It’s a way to make sure the information is successfully captured accurately and then made readily available.

It’s clear that Dogfish has built a level of brand loyalty over its 30 years, said Campbell. Dogfish Head broke the mold, he said, adding there will be a display at the company’s big birthday party in November at the annual Analog-A-Go-Go.

Bring back the use of fire sirens

Earlier this month, a report examining the financial stability of local fire departments produced a result that I can’t imagine too many people found surprising – costs and responses are going up, revenue and volunteers are going down. The report suggested two methods of increasing revenue, and they both call for taxpayer money – a specific fee or more contributions from the county.

This is not a new issue. Without fail, for years now, during budget discussions of local municipalities, fire department officials make the case for why the municipality should contribute more to the volunteer organization. Often the contribution is more, but never enough to answer all the needs.

One of the things I think the local fire companies could do that doesn’t cost any money, but would serve as a constant reminder of the work being done by the fire companies, is to start using their fire sirens again. In the name of technology advances and a reduction of noise pollution, a few fire companies stopped using sirens a few years ago.

The sirens serve as a notice to civilians that big trucks moving fast are going to be on the road soon. They also serve as a reminder to those same civilians that others are out there fighting fires and answering emergency calls.

If I had to guess, the fire companies would get more complaints than donations if they started using the sirens again. However, I’m sure a nesting pair of ospreys wouldn’t have set up shop in Rehoboth the summer after they stopped using their siren.

Joke of the Week

Capt. Obvious entering the chat to say it’s been hot this past week. It’s the type of weather where I always carry a sweat rag. Even in the shade, I was sweating. It’s not all bad, though. I always feel a little better when stepping on the scale after my morning run before I shower. I know it’s water weight, but at least it’s going in the right direction, which is more than I can say about my holiday eating weight. As always, send jokes to cflood@capegazette.com.

Q: Why is hot friendlier than cold?

A: Because heat waves, but cold snaps.