Featured Collector: Dave Brown
Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", January 2004, page 35
Well, there is a bit more to the Big Sky Swap Meet story (page 31), but Left
Coast Lines has to wait for future events to catch up with future plans before
we can report on any of it. In order to learn more, Left Coast Lines met with
Dave and Shirley brown at their Exeter, California home in late September. We
picked up a few more details on the story and we had an opportunity to talk with
the Browns about collecting insulators.
Dave told us that he had been collecting insulators in and around Exeter
since the early '70s. Let's see, that would make him about seven years old.
Golly Batman, that's young! Dave was introduced to insulators at the home of his
friend whose father was a lineman. The lineman had accumulated quite a few
insulators. Dave said, "I remember that they were displayed on a wooden
shelf over the guy's fireplace." Dave also remembered his insulator hunting
buddy, Alec Dyatt, who was more involved in the hobby and knew about the NIA.
Dave had the opportunity to trade, barter,
and deal with Dee Willett, Bill Heitkotter, Sid Marcus, Bill Rohde, Ross Huth,
Bruce Tulley, and many more. The picture of a thirteen year old Dave Brown with
Dee Willett that appears in this article was taken at the Bakersfield show some
twenty years ago.
Young Dave Brown fine tunes his sales table at the Tulare show.
Dee was offering to sell Dave a CD161 California with sharp
drip points for $250. Dave recalls, "I made that deal with
Dee when I was 13. I bargained to give him $50 up
front and I promised to pay him twenty-five bucks a month until I had that thing
paid off. Problem is, I never did it. After talkin' it over with Mom and Dad, we
decided that I just couldn't afford it!" Dave's story of "The One That
Got Away" is just like stories that many of us have. Wouldn't it be nice to
be able to roll the clock back? Oh well.
A couple of the other pictures in this
article show Dave managing his sale table at various shows in the early and late
1970s. Dave recalls drifting away from the hobby during the early 1980s. He got
back into insulators in the mid '90s when fate dropped two collections into his
lap from Exeter and Selma. Suddenly Dave found himself in possession of an amber
CD145 HGCo beehive, a teal-aqua EC&M, a sage California helmet, a CD 208 Cal cross top, a couple of cobalt Hemingray signals, a sage California egg, and
a yellow CD 161 California signal. Those are the pieces he kept! The rest of the
insulators sold like hotcakes and before we knew it, Dave was back!
Dee Willett and Dave at age 13
Today, Dave and Shirley still reside in Exeter with their two young sons
Daniel and Andrew. They have a beautifully restored 90 year old home on one of
the most picturesque streets in the town. Colorful, sparkling insulators can be
found all around their home. There are sunlit display windows and backlit
display cases in the living room and family room. Dave displays his colored
porcelain insulators on shelves out in his shop and there are full height square
poles with cross arms and side pins adorning the back yard. Passersby can
clearly see many more insulators displayed in the windows of the old store that
sits on the front corner of the Brown's property. Other collectors who come to
visit Dave and Shirley for the weekend often sleep in the old store on a big,
comfortable bed that they have out there.
Even though Dave's large collection seems to "have it all", he is still
looking for the CD 200 California. He says that those have always been the
hardest to find in really good shape.
Dave also shared that he has a family relative living in northern Montana who
is in contact with a Canadian rancher. This rancher has a multiple circuit,
multiple cross arm, open wire telephone line across many acres of his ranch. The
line is defunct and many of the poles are either sagging or fallen. All of the
insulators are lying where they fell and plans are in the works to get up there
and investigate the situation as soon as the weather and Dave's work schedule
will permit.
This beautiful backlit display case covers an entire wall in the Brown's
living room.
We would like to I extend our sincere appreciation to Dave and Shirley Brown
for graciously allowing us into their home and sharing so many of their fond,
collecting memories with us.
---Mike Doyle
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