19 July 2006
 
Hi Tim,
 
I hate to rain on your folk tale, but cutesy stories to explain the  presence 
of artifacts and their persistence among archaeologists has  really become 
one of my pet peeves.  Your story of Ma Wolfe and her tainted  meat is, 
well--bologna (baloney).
 
Our recent reinventory of the Thomas Wolfe cistern artifact  
collection--which includes your 1975 investigation of the top half and the  completion of the 
bottom five feet by Chris Baroody three years later--yielded a  total of 9448 
bottle fragments (from a whopping 45,661 total  artifacts).
 
Of these, 1464 individually identifiable bottles were functionally  
classified.  A total of 101 were culinary in nature (6.9%), and of which  only a meager 
12 were Worcestershire sauce (and yes, they were Lea &  Perrins).  Twelve 
small bottles of Worcestershire sauce for a cistern that  may have been open and 
accumulated debris for approximately 40 plus years?
 
Additionally, based on the recollections (albeit autobiographic  fiction) in 
Look Homeward, Angel and Mabel Wolfe Wheaton's actual  autobiography, the 
importance of food to the Wolfe house was second to  none.  There is actually no 
indication--archaeological, literary, or  autobiographical--to support that 
Mrs. Wolfe fed her family or boarders any form  of secondary graded meat coated 
in Worcestershire to mask its age or  taste.
 
Sorry to be the bearer of facts, but that's what the collection and the  
records reveal. Should you like a copy of our report I'll be more than  happy to 
provide you with one.
 
Cheers,
 
Tom Beaman
 
Anthropology Instructor, Wilson Technical Community College
and Principal Investigator of Tar River Archaeological Research
Wilson, North Carolina