25 Years of Collecting

1994 - A year of celebration for the Insulator Hobby and a year of celebration for us as well. It is our 25th Anniversary and our 25th year of collecting insulators.

Appropriately, we began collecting insulators on our Honeymoon! The week of June 14th, 1969 found us honeymooning in New Hampshire. Toward the end of the week we decided to head home by way of Maine. Not too far into Maine, nature called! No rest areas around, just mile after mile of woods bordering the road on both sides. We pulled over to the side of the road and dashed into the woods. Karen hunkered over a fallen log while I found a convenient tree. Ahh!!

As Karen got herself back together again she exclaimed: "What's this? It looks like glass." Indeed! It turned out that the fallen "log" she found so convenient was an old downed telephone pole. At the far end of the pole was a cross-arm with six glass insulators on it. However common they later turned out to be, they were for us at the time, sparkling "Jewels-Of-The-Woods." A love affair with insulators had begun.

"Hemingray Blue" 42's, some light aqua and straw Whitall Tatum No.1' s were our bounty after tracking down several more poles. The different colors and embossings were interesting. But wait, here's one in two separate pieces that's embossed "A.T.&T.Co." Now we have several colors and embossings, plus the old line takes on a "life" and history as we know it was an American Telephone & Telegraph Co. line. The insulator, later to be known to us as an aqua CD-190/191 two-piece transposition, and quite common, was none the less quite a find at the time. The shared thrill of discovery was ours.

Later we were to find books. Tibbitts was the first, then Milholland, Terrill, et al. We met other collectors, went to swap-meets, and discovered "CROWN JEWELS."

25 years later we're still at it....... and the insulators are still out there to be found. Last summer, right after the Denver National, we found an interesting white porcelain mine-insulator on the ground in Silverton, Colorado. And just last week we came across a VNM CD-110.5 "National" for 50 cents at a local flea market! 

25 years later..... still collecting .... still excited over each insulator discovery....whether it be the CD-110.5 or just some common porcelain we found along an abandoned power line near us. Like our ongoing romance of 25 years; the "Romance-of-The-Wires" still calls us.