Longtime Lone Star Insulator Club member Merwin S. Lodge passed away at his home in Kerrville, Texas on June 3, 2005. Merwin, along with his late wife Sarah, and their two children, Russell and Drucilla, were charter members of the LSIC. Russell, who was severely disabled, had an extensive collection of insulators. In addition to being Russell's caretakers, Merwin and Sarah wholeheartedly supported their son's hobby and actively attended LSIC meetings and functions. Merwin and Sarah often furnished refreshments for the meetings, and Merwin served as treasurer for the club until 2002.

Last year, Merwin survived a bout with colon cancer. In January 2005, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and chemotherapy was ineffective. Merwin was an active hobbyist who will be missed by all who knew him.

Bob Machann

To the General Insulator Collecting Community, 
My family and I did not know, when my CJOW "Help the Brewers Get to San Jose Sale!" sales list was printed, that we would not be able to make the National show this year. About two months after the last insulator sold through this advertisement, Tammy and I both accepted new teaching jobs at Heritage Academy in Hagerstown, MD (five hours SE of our current location). By the time you read this, we should be in our new, Chambersburg, PA home. So any of you who thought you would be helping us get to San Jose, ended up helping us to move to where we once again can be a part of a Christian school ministry. Thank you, and if anyone is unhappy with this unforeseen result, I will cheerfully accept returns.

Lee Brewer

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Banks, 
Hello. I am writing to thank you for providing yet another fun contest for us kids. I think it really does a lot for the hobby, and CJOW is the only magazine I know that does this sort of thing. THANK YOU!

Powell Brown

Where Can We Hunt for Insulators?

I am ten yers old. One of my hobbis is collecting insolators. Me and miy Dad wyd lic to go prospecting for insolators. We liv in te fors in Orugin. If ene of you no a cupl of gud plasis to dieg, cud you tel us pies. Frum: Sam

Editor's note: Crown Jewels received the short letter above from a young collector. If you have trouble following the text, Sam wrote: "Me and my Dad would like to go prospecting for insulators. We live in the forest in Oregon. If any of you know a couple of good places to dig, could you tell us please."

Sam, The question you raise is one that is asked constantly by every collector, no matter how young or old. Let me start out by stating that I'm familiar with where you live, having crossed the Buena Vista ferry over the Willamette River on a couple of occasions. A good place to "prospect" for insulators is always antique shops, junk stores, second hand stores, and the like. Close to you, in the town of Independence, a collector recently purchased a CD 102 embossed with the California name for just a few bucks. Catch the ferry and check out the shops out there. More good stuff might show up.

But you really asked about places to dig for insulators. In the Willamette Valley there are lots of abandoned railroad grades, some without any tracks. If you see such a place, first obtain permission from the land owner to walk the old railroad grade. The poles on those old railways were taken down decades ago. But I know of collectors that have found broken fragments of both CD 123 EC&M's and CD 130 Cal. Elec. Works on those very railroad grades in just the last few years.

Telephone lines ran alongside all those country roads in your area at one time in the distant past. Insulators could be scattered in the grass, weeds and brush almost anywhere. But always be careful of traffic if you walk along roadways. And, again, remember to first obtain permission from the land owner before entering private property.

Here's another idea. There are a lot of farms in your neighborhood. And I'll bet you know a lot of kids who are children or grandchildren of those farmers. And we all know that farmers never throw anything away. Right? (My Dad certainly never did.) So if those farmers ever found any insulators, they are probably still lying around in piles by the bam, or all cross arms behind the milk shed. See where I'm going? Ask your school friends. And have them ask their grandmas and grandpas. Maybe you'll get permission to sort through someone's stash. (I found a stockpile of crossarms loaded with insulators inside a bam in Indiana when I was a teenager. The crossarms were stacked ten feet high.)

Also, I know of several locations near you where farmers have recycled telephone and railroad insulators for use on their electric fences.

Keep your eyes open. Insulators can show up any where at any time. But always be safe. Ask permission from farmers you know. Be careful around strangers. Most of all, have fun. Write us again and tell us what you find.

Howard