There is news this month that will make some of you sad, or glad, or both. I am retiring as regular editor of the Porcelain Insulator News column. Your new editor of this column is Elton Gish, NIA #41, 3157 Dogwood Lane, Port Neches, Texas 77651.

In the past several years I have had so many other interests that it has been increasingly difficult to gather the time or energy to put together a regular column. It has been especially so during the summer and fall months, since we spend a majority of that time at our summer home up in the remote mountains.

Also, I continue to lose touch with the hobby as each year rolls by, since I have not collected insulators myself or gone to any insulator shows for over five years. I'm no longer current on who the present collectors are, what insulators have been turning up at shows or in the bigger collections, current insulator values, etc. Regarding these aspects of it, I find it necessary now to answer too many questions with "I don't know".

By contrast, Elton is a source of fresh enthusiasm for collecting, gets around in insulatordom and has probably the finest collection extant of all the old classic insulators -- Imperial, Fred M. Locke, etc. He is a graduate chemical engineer, writes well and has the time to do it. We are very pleased that he accepted our invitation to edit the column.

I will assist Elton during the transition and as long as required, will remain as a consultant to him and will on some occasions make direct contributions to the column.

We intend that the column will continue to be respected for its factual information, not a herd of wild guesses for answers, and that it will carry only interesting and revealing collector experiences, not a bunch of boring "filler" material just to increase the page count. Even so, Elton will probably continue my habit of writing the accounts in an airy fashion, laughing along with you at the funny and sometimes ridiculous events that collectors experience.

In the past 12 years I've cranked out nearly 1,000 pages of camera-ready copy for the CJ Porcelain Insulator News column, and we've received many compliments on the general make-up of the column. I have made many good friends, mostly people whom I've never met in person, hopefully few enemies. It's truly difficult to type this page, knowing it will probably be the very last one under my by-line. It is comforting to know that Elton can edit the column just as well as I did, if not even better. As I have autographed all of my books since 1971, "Happy collecting".

Jack