5TH GCSIC SHOW, YUMA, AZ

Riverside Park was still shrouded in pre-dawn shadows as Lou Pin-Man Hall piloted his van down the winding tarmac below Yuma Territorial Prison. As more light flowed from the dawn horizon into the early morning sky, anyone could have told you that Saturday, February 7th was showing the promise of becoming a clear, beautiful, late winter day in Arizona. Shortly after dawn, Dwayne Anthony and Kevin Jacobson arrived in their big SUVs, leading what would prove to be a two hour long procession of insulator enthusiasts into the park.

This was the Fifth Annual Grand Canyon State Insulator Club's Yuma Tailgater. This GCSIC show has always been a VERY well attended event by locals, NIA Western Region hobbyists, and snow birds from the frigid north. GCSIC put on a grand show complete with a spectacular assortment of breakfast goodies, insulators and go-withs, awesome lunch fixins, and a healthy serving of friendly fellowship.

The big attraction was Tucson, Arizona's Ross Thompson collection that was offered for individual sale. His spectacular insulator collection of some 35 years represented the most hair raising assortment of Crown Jewels that we have seen since the Jim Overstreet collection was offered for sale! The other 15 or 20 tables were covered with high quality items, and sales all around the park were quite brisk for most of the day. There were a number of really nice mud items sold including a gutter top. Carol and John McDougald brought some of their best mud and it went poof! when Jason Townsend caught site of it. Roger Nagel snagged a CD164 citrine McLaughlin for a REALLY good price and Dwayne Anthony took home a BOX of insulators to consider and compare before adding them to his collection! One particular item that caught our eyes was the clear CD151 HGCo Petticoat with purple in the dome and olive in the skirt. What a score! Then, there was the dead mint, super clean, blue, CD206 castle that Robert Baumann had. We at Left Coast Lines (LCL) spent the whole day wishing that we had a real bank account. Tom Katonak picked up a wonderful, medium SCA, CD203 Zicme tramp, and Bob Jackson brought a killer wood-covered CD723.? Wade. We saw telegraph hardware (Larry!), linemen's equipment, BIG, THICK hamburgers, FOOT LONG dawgs and .... wait .... I'm not to the lunch part yet. Ahhhmm .... There were cobalt threadless Tillotsons (broad dome!), there were cobalt and aqua EC&Ms, swirly Cal. Electrics, SCA CEWs, threaded ERWs, multiple Bostons! and at one point we counted TWELVE CD196 tramps, all in VNM or better for sale. There was a great lavenflower WFG toll, a gutter top porcelain multi, and more. Left Coast Lines would love to list all of the great deals that were made at the show but Linda Banks tells me that we have to fit this report into a certain amount of space so we will reluctantly move on.

The lunch bunch included a few of the GCSIC guy's wives who worked very hard preparing the vittles in advance. Thank you Terri, Cheryl and company! They outdid themselves with a wonderful lunch spread that included flame broiled burgers and huge hot dawgz. Our official kitchen judges were Richard Dawson (hot dawgz), Bill Ostrander (burgers), Carol McDougald (salads and fixins), Doris James (cookies), and Don Bayes (white chocolate coated pretzels). The judge's results were, as you might imagine, unanimous. The GCSIC lunch crew scored a near-perfect 9.7 out of 10.0 Later, behind the scenes, LCL discovered that one of the judges took off points when he got so enthusiastic that he bit his tongue. (Is that fair?)

Dealers, hobbyists, and insulator enthusiasts included Bill Ostrander, John & Carol McDougald, Cheryl and Kevin Jacobson, Art McConnachie, Pat Bradford, Steve Kelly and his son, Dave, NIA First Lady and the President, Lynda & Tom Katonak, Dwayne Anthony, Dave LeForge, Terri & Roger Nagel, Lou Hall, Ross Thompson, Robert Baumann, Roger Brekke, Brad Blanseette, David Brown, Richard During, Jason Townsend (displayed a wooden Baker board), Denny Hackthorn, Richard and (can we believe our eyes?!?) Pam Dawson, Arlene (Good to see you back up and around Arlene! :c) and Bob Jackson, Tamra & Ken Wnuck, Doris & Norm James, Rick Insulator-King Bentley with his children Judith and Anthony, Mark & Debra Johnson, Matt Keliher and friend Ed Ferriter, Valerie Meyers, Roy Parker and Jim Barton (both with 25 years collecting), Bruce Young (35 years in the hobby!), and Carol & Ed Lowe.

When asked a question, Ed Lowe replied, "I been collecting about as long as Mulford & Biddle." Others attending included Jim Harlow and his children Maria, Aleesia, and Julian. LCL spoke with Maria Harlow who told us that she's 13 and she collects Hemingray and Gayner. Elaine & Don Bayes were there with their kids and grand kids and friends. The Bayes' clan included John and friend Robert Valdez, Bill & Maria with son Nicolas. Yuma snow birds included Michael Jones of Big Fork, MT, who founded the Yuma show in 1998. Mike is also a co-host with Ron Yuhas for the upcoming but yet-to-be-announced Big Sky Swap Meet in Helena, MT. We are looking forward to mid-September, possibly, for that shindig. OK, back to the snow birds --- Doreen & Gary Reed (Chute Lake Resort, BC Canada), Robert Parker (Alberta, Canada), Jim & Bea Gramlich (Alberta, Canada), Ferne & Mel Bradford (Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, Canada), and Ron Davies from Christian Lake, BC, who was vacationing in Yuma for the 25th (consecutive?) winter! '

The Yuma show is another great example of a re-strengthening trend in our hobby favoring affordable, home grown, informal venue based, get-togethers. LCL fully supports similar shows in the Western Region like Big Sky, Mountain View, Merzoian Brothers, Rohde Roundup, Banks' Backyard, Emerald City, and the newest informal venue based show in the region, The First Annual Three Amigo's High Desert Insulator Thang & Bar-B-Q that will be held on Saturday, October 16th, 2004 in Lancaster, California. Visit http://www.av3amigos.com/events.html to learn all about this premiere event or wait for the October listing in Crown Jewels Magazine's Coming Events.

So, all you thread-heads, Listen Up: Getcher glass and mud traders into a good, sturdy box. Getcher swap lists and price guides updated. Flip open yer Crown Jewels to Coming Events and click in the Show Finder for details on the next swap meet or tailgater in your area. Dig that dusty wad of cash out-o-the Fred Locke pinhole and get all yer friends together for an insulator road trip because.....

IT'S SHOWTIME!

Ross Thompson's spectacular sales table.

Photos by Kevin Jacobson

A trio of treasures!!! 
That's a CD 109 Chicago at the back.