I thought I would share a unique perspective of our hobby after a 20 year hiatus and confirm some history on a couple of the more unusual insulators that I recently learned.

I started collecting insulators as a high school runner in the early 1970's. I would run out in the country from my home in St. Joseph, Missouri. I enjoyed running along the roads parallel to railroad tracks. I noticed the signal line poles had been torn down. The insulators looked interesting, and I would remove one for each hand and run the 4 or 5 miles back home, sure that I would develop tremendous biceps. I grew few muscles, but started a nice insulator collection. As my interest grew, somehow I found out about Milholland's Guide, and later the NIA. I continued a casual interest in the hobby and was proud to have introduced Dennis and Jeannie Weber formally into the hobby. We started to go to shows and made a lot of friends. Upon graduation from college, and moving to Kansas City to start my career, I grew frustrated as I couldn't get into the hobby like I wanted. In the early 1980's I sold my collection to fund a stock purchase in the company I was working for. Although I was no longer an enthusiast, I never forgot about the hobby.

A couple of summers ago I visited the Weber's to see how they were, and to talk about the old days. I saw their impressive collection, and even a few of the pieces that used to adorn my shelves. The bug was back. I've been fortunate to be able to rebuild my collection and even acquire some of the insulators I only dreamed about as a kid. I've enjoyed every minute getting back in the hobby, and of course was amazed at the prices 20 years later. I've acquired all the old issues of Crown Jewels, and the NIA "Drip Points", to try to catch up on two decades of history.

I've been pretty active since my return and had the good fortune of visit with a lot of folks I knew years ago. I've been encouraged to share with the hobby a couple of bits of information I've discovered along the way. First, a disclaimer: The two fellows that removed the insulators in the following paragraphs told me their stories first hand. I have no reason to doubt them, but I wasn't there to see the insulators in use, so I must go by their word.

One of the more unique threaded insulators is the CD 268 Crown (shown at left below). Early in 2003, a retired lineman from Saranac Lake, New York emailed me to see if I was interested in purchasing his. As I'm trying to build a CD collection, I replied I might be. He gave me a complete history: In the late 1800's, a new power company was formed in the Saranac Lake area called the Paul Smith Electric Light, Power and Railroad Company. This firm purchased all kinds of used equipment including insulators, etc. The lineman that called me went to work for the company in 1960, and became interested in insulators. He found a good many rare examples.

One day in the late 1960's, the lineman was performing a service work order in the small community of Vermontville, NY. The job included installing service to a barn. He noticed a wire hanging on a wall threaded along eight CD 268 Crowns. Some were damaged, but not all. He made a deal with the farmer and soon they were all his. He sold or traded away all of them except for the one I purchased. In all of his years, he said he only heard of one other example being found, a broken one located in New Jersey. The lineman is certain most, if not all, of the Crowns in collections passed thru his hands. While I'm not sure, I believe I've heard of a few more examples than 8 or 9 out there. But the story provides some interesting details into their discovery.

In September, I hade the good fortune of coming up with my 9th example of the beautiful electric blue (often mistakenly referred to as peacock blue) CD 257 Mickey Mouse. Living in or near the Kansas City area most of my life, this insulator has special meaning to me. Before I sold my collection 20 years ago, I had a nice example of this insulator, and I had always heard they were found only on one line in the Kansas City area.

I never knew which specific line they were on until I bought this latest one from an 83 year old retired Kansas City Power and Light lineman. He saw them come down off a Trolley line running from the south side of Kansas City to downtown along what is now called Brookside. The trolley tracks were razed in the past few years, and a jogging trail is in their place. I'm proud to own this group of "mice" with each and everyone of them having waves of a white substance running thru the glass. I've gathered them all from the Midwest, and they are all in good shape save for a few missing drip points.

I hope this history is consistent with details discovered to date on these two popular insulators. If you know more details, I'd love to hear from you. It's great to be back!