Tobacco Road (More memories from Ed Hollar)

Ed writes, I had been collecting for about two years (1960's) when one day a foreman named Ted asked me if I had been down to the old cable yard. It was about two miles way from where we were working, in a small town nearby. I didn't know about it. Ted told me the building there was going to be torn down, and I needed to talk to "Old Fred". He worked at the building for about 35 years and was their supply man.

So the next day I went to the town to meet "Old Fred". He wore a pair of bibs, a flannel shirt, and had a chew in his jaw the size of a baseball. When I told him who I was, he laughed at me and said he had heard about the nut who collected old glass insulators. He took me on a tour of the old building, saying it had been built around 1870.

"Old Fred" gave me a box of Hemingray 56's that were brand new, never used. We talked about the many changes going on in the telephone industry. Then, as I was getting ready to leave, Fred asked, "Do you really like them glass pieces?" I told him, "Yes". All this time he had been spitting his chew into a hole in the floor, about six inches wide and maybe 12 inches long. Fred smiled at me and said, "I've been sweeping glass down this here hole for about 20 years!" He said a box fell over a good many years ago. He didn't fix the hole in the floor because it came in so handy.

I went over and looked down. All I saw was glass. The old building was supported by big tile. The floor was about four feet off the ground. I went outside and looked underneath. There was a pile of glass at least three feet high and maybe six feet across. I said to myself, "No way. All that trash. All that glass. And all that tobacco juice!!" No way was I going to get myself under there.

As I got ready to leave, Fred told me he would be moving out in about six weeks. If I wanted anything under there, I would have to get it out soon. I went on to work that day telling myself, "Nope. I don't need any of that stuff under there." I kept telling myself, "No, no, no:' That was on a Wednesday. The next Saturday morning at sunup, guess where I was? With coveralls and rubber gloves, I spent the good part of the morning picking through broken insulators. I found a whole CD 196 H G Co in aqua, and then one in SCA! After that, all bets were off. I started digging and picking. Boy was it fun. Next was a CD 133 Homer Brooke's. I rescued about 100 insulators from under that building. And I started a "heartbreak collection:' I found pieces of at least five threadless insulators, half of a purple Hemingray #9, and others. 

There were a lot of porcelain insulators there. But at the time I had no interest in them. I just wanted glass. I really believe that I had so much at that time that I didn't really have any idea what I really had! Do wish I could find another "hole in the floor" now.

Ed Hollar (The Old Pole Cat)