Milk Jug House
Posted by: 
chstress53
N 39° 27.954 W 074° 48.329
18S E 516732 N 4368498
Josephine Stapleton has been decorating her front lawn in Mays Landing, NJ with milk jugs since the late 1960s. Her displays include over 2,000 of them. She began collecting milk bottles to build a barricade to keep the kids with mini-bikes and dune buggies off her front lawn. She saved about 400 on her own, then family, friends and even passers-by started dropping them off. Somewhere along the line, she started painting the jugs and creating colored patterns with them.
Waymark Code: WM7YD
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 02/23/2006
Views: 223
She uses two methods to color her jugs. Her favored method is painting them but this is time-consuming (requiring two coats) and costly (filling the bottoms with cat litter). The other way, using food coloring or fabric dye and water, makes for heavier jugs and problems with freezing in winter. Many of the jugs on display are over 12 years old.
The main attraction is the American Flag in front of the house (made with over 800 jugs) which was completed in 1992. She has had a lot of trouble with vandals and hailstorms over the years and it has been a challenge keeping it up. Her most recent designs in the last few years have included the numbers of NASCAR drivers killed in fatal accidents and Christmas trees. She also has done other seasonal displays: a pumpkin for Halloween, a turkey for Thanksgiving, Santa for Christmas, a rabbit for Easter, etc. In 2004, only the American Flag display and small seasonal displays were created. Behind the house, there are a few scattered, half-filled jugs and there was still a bin for the public to deposit empties. As of Christmas 2005, I hear that Josephine may not be well enough to creating any new displays but the flag is still there.
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