What does the Pacific Northwest Mustang Club and 
collecting insulators have in common?

Well.... on one sunny autumn day in 1997 .... plenty. For those of you who do not know me, our family has two types of ponies. The first kind is the type that you drive -- Mustangs. The other kind is made of glass -- CD 102s. As for me, I prefer the glass type while the remainder of my family prefers the four wheeled kind. As many of you know, being part of a family requires sharing each other's interests (even though the other interests may not parallel your own). In my case, all the time required sharing other interests does not leave much time for OTHER more important "shared" interests -- such as collecting insulators!

Paul Ziemer and his Mustang "pony".

Before I continue my insulator story, let me give you a brief history of my insulator collecting. I started collecting insulators in 1968. Most Saturdays were spent walking the Illinois Central or New York Central Railroad tracks in Kankakee, Illinois, looking for insulators. Good insulators were fairly easy to find in those days - both on the ground and on the pole! I accumulated a fairly nice collection of insulators before "quitting" the hobby in 1972. After graduation from high school my life took on new dimensions and the thought of insulators was forgotten. My parents retired and decided to sell their house. As you know, anytime you move, you make decisions to eliminate things you no longer need or want. This was made painfully clear to me when I received a phone call from my parents. They told me about their just completed garage sale and marveled at how quickly all of those old insulators sold in comparison to other more useful items. Somewhere during the phone call, I made the decision to never collect anything again. This commitment held true up until about five years ago when insulators again entered my life.

It was a warm spring day. My son, Jeff, and I were cleaning out the garage. It was time to get rid of all of the no longer needed items that were just gathering dust - much in the same way that my parents had done years before. During this cleaning adventure, Jeff discovered a small cardboard box containing two insulators that had somehow managed to survive our moves over the years. One was an old lightning rod insulator full of milky swirls in a nice ice aqua. The other was a CD 145 H.G. CO. Petticoat in light purple. 

Jeff asked me what they were. I simply said "insulators" and went back to work. A couple of minutes later, Jeff tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention and asked, "Dad, what are insulators?" I stopped what I was doing, sat down with Jeff and explained what insulators were. I told him that I was about his age when I began collecting insulators. I could see that my explanation and those pieces of glass had captured his attention. After my explanation had ended, Jeff went outside and washed the insulators. As he placed the CD 145 on his thumb, holding it up to allow the sun to pour through the glass. At that moment, I saw a reflection of myself as a youth standing there looking at an insulator. I was again hooked on insulators!!! 

Now, back to my insulator story. Many of my weekends in the fall are reserved for insulator hunting trips. Usually by this time of year the Mustangs have been put away until spring. It was late fall in the Pacific Northwest and we had yet to see our first snow. The long range forecast for our area called for a mild winter. Unseasonably warm and exceptionally nice weather allowed the Mustang club to make several additional trips that year, all of which significantly impacted my weekend insulator hunting trips. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. I became even less thrilled when I found out that plans had been made to have still another road trip on an upcoming Saturday. Saturday morning arrived and it was a beautiful bright clear autumn day. It was nice enough that the convertibles could have their tops down to capture the fall colors and take in the crisp clean air. As we arrived at our meeting place, everyone was happy and excited about our pending day trip - with the exception of me!! I just knew that if I was out insulator hunting I could find some terrific pieces to add to my collection. Oh, well!! I requested to be the lead car in our caravan.

Then I could ensure that we stopped at some antique shops that were along the way. Having terrific pull in the Mustang Club, my request to be the lead car landed me fifth in line out of the ten car caravan. With frustration running high, I caught glimpses of antique shop after antique shop as our caravan continued to roll on by them. 

An hour passed and my frustration level continued to rise. The caravan finally stopped at an antique shop located on a very busy road. As we rolled to a stop, I thought of all of the people that must have stopped on this busy road at this antique shop. Entering the shop, my eyes scoured the long shelves and floor area looking for any signs of insulators. I tried to forget that previous trips to this antique store had only produced a single insulator find. It was a Hemingray CD 154 in aqua and even it was in poor condition. As I walked the aisles in the store, I was preoccupied with thoughts of the insulator hunt that I should be on! 

My daydreams were broken when I spotted some insulators under a shelf. The two that I could see were dark and very dirty. The first one was a CD 154 Whitall Tatum in purple. Just to the right of the CD 154 was a royal purple CD 102 Bar/Diamond with a huge bubble in the skirt.

Right behind the CD 102 was a CD 152 Brookfield in emerald green. Behind the Brookfield was a clear CD 106 Hemingray. As I moved the CD 106, I spotted another insulator. This one was lavender in color and had sharp drip points. It was very apparent that this insulator was different from all the rest. Very different! As I pulled it from the shelf and out into the light, I realized that this was something good. Very Good! 

As I carefully looked over the insulator, I noticed it had no broken drip points. The only damage I could find was a ping on dome, a faint rub in the wire groove and some very faint stress cracks. The color was a truly awesome medium lavender. I had never seen anything quite like this before and it sent shivers up my spine. I was enthralled with it's beauty and condition.

Here is the detailed description found in McDougald's price guide. It is a CD 134 Patent [040], (F-Skirt) PATENT/DEC. 19, 1871 (R-Skirt) PATENT MAY 2, 1893, in an unlisted color - medium lavender - and is what I would consider VNM. I looked, but there was no price tag on this particular piece. How much? How much? I kept repeating this to myself as I searched the shelf looking for the missing price tag. 

Unable to locate a price tag, I approached the lady at the counter to ask for a price on the insulator. The lady seemed to be already aggravated by the sheer number of people in her small shop. She immediately belted out a price of$35.00. Hmmmmmm .... I said to myself. How did she arrive at that price? Lets see .... $35.00 for the Whitall Tatum and the price guide shows (15 to 20). It was $35.00 for the Bar/Diamond and the price guide shows (15 to 20). Well, I figured that this insulator was priced consistent with the other two purple insulators. Of course my price guide was at home and I had no idea at that time what I should pay for the insulator. I decided to buy it. In retrospect, I really felt that the price was a little high. "That will be $35.00 plus tax," the sales lady said. "Ok," I said, "put it on my VISA card." Looking up at me over her reading glasses she said "I'm sorry sir, we do not accept credit cards or out of town checks." "What?" Looking disgusted she stated, "I'm sorry sir, we do not believe in credit or credit cards." I opened my wallet, heading to that "secret" part where I keep cash for emergencies. Then it occurred to me that I had spent that money on an anniversary gift for my wife the previous month.

Now.... picture yourself standing in an antique store with an empty wallet, a credit card in one hand and the insulator find of a lifetime in the other hand. What a picture!!

What was I going to do? I decided to ask my wife, Cheryl, for the money. I knew that she had money.... she always has money. But how could I ask her for money to buy an insulator for me? You must understand, it is her belief that if you have one insulator - you have enough! I approached Cheryl, but before I could even get the words out she said, "I'm not buying you any insulators." After a nice friendly discussion on insulator philosophy and collecting, she gave me the money. Whew! 

As our caravan pulled away from the parking lot to continue the road trip, a sense of relief came over me. I had just found a great insulator for my collection. I knew that the insulator was very special and would remain special for a long time. It also reminded me that participating in other family member's interests can pay back big dividends in the long run. As for me, I cannot wait for the next road trip with the Pacific Northwest Mustang Club. Happy collecting!!