My, how this hobby has changed during the past sixteen years! It's become organized, modernized, and definitely more specialized.

During 1970, '71 and '72, the insulator collecting hobby was really popular in the mid-west. Kansas City, Missouri, was one of the early "hot beds" of activity. Not only did we have an established fraternity of collectors, we also had a seemingly unlimited supply of exotic colored insulators. Local insulator swap meets were very popular and were held on a regular basis. If not in Kansas City itself, there would be a show in southern Iowa, St. Joseph, Missouri, or in the Ft. Scott or Hutchinson, Kansas, vicinity.

As I look back on these shows, I remember how the attendees seemed to stratify themselves, mainly along the lines of age similarity. You would see a group of collectors and their families sitting together during a show. A month later, at a different show, it was the same crowd. Only the location had changed. Most within this group ranged in age from their mid-forties to late fifties. Back then, I considered them to be old fogies! NOW, I realize they were simply middle-aged (wonder why that is?). This group would always welcome a younger collector into their presence, but after you sat and listened for a short while, you realized you were out of place. The fascinating thing was that they controlled a great deal of the prevailing opinion within the hobby. An example of what I mean was the subject of describing insulator colors. This group held to a very rigid set of standards. With very few exceptions all insulators fell into one of the following classifications: black glass, S.C.A., cobalt blue, peacock blue, green aqua, clear, carnival or amber. Any departure from these classifications or attempts at more original color names usually was openly discouraged by these "fuddy duddies." To them, an amber was an amber!!!

I remember an event that occurred at one of those early shows. One of my best friends was a Power and Light lineman named Larry Rollins. Larry and I were nearly the same age, and we just didn't quite fit in with the older group. We generally bummed around together at these shows, and gabbed with others in our age group. During this particular show, Larry and I were seated behind his sales table. One of the middle aged members of the group stopped, picked up a magnificent honey colored H.G.CO. signal from Larry's sales stock and began looking it over. The lighting in the room was really good and that signal almost glowed. It was that bright!! Larry made an offhand remark, trying to encourage his customer to decide to buy. The remark was nothing more than speaking an absent thought out loud describing the insulator as deserving of more of a color notation than simply amber. WELL -- that was enough to annoy Mr. Authority. He promptly put the signal down and very undiplomatically told Larry he was wrong. The signal was nothing more than an amber. Then he promptly walked off. There was a moment or two of silence before Larry turned to me and said, "You know, Charlie, that guy is wrong! This signal doesn't deserve to be called JUST an amber. It's much too bright. But what can you do? To all of these people everything from brown to yellow and red to orange is simply an amber!" Larry was correct in what he stated, but in 1971 he was ahead of his time. During that period, the insulator collecting hobby was still in the rapid expansion period of exploration and discovery. Established collectors were still involved in the actual search for new insulators. We were using some very early hobby books as guides, and were very grateful to have CROWN JEWELS magazine delivered each month. But we were too early in the development of our hobby to hear descriptions such as sapphire blue, oxblood red or bright yellow.

As the early and mid-1970's gave way, a new crowd of collectors stepped forward. Most of the old timers disappeared, and very few of the collectors my age sustained their hobby interest. As a result, many collections changed hands and our hobby changed rapidly. In the early 1970's, there were literally thousands of collectors spread across the country and nearly all of their collections contained a few very rare pieces. Most had been acquired by personal discovery and often increased by astute trading. But as these collectors dropped out of the hobby, their collections were often purchased by dealers. Here, the important period of specialization within our hobby began. Dealers began to work as "pickers," in that they would purchase a collection and start ear-marking certain insulators for certain collectors. Most of these collectors were the individuals that entered the hobby after 1975. These hobbyists entered with a much more specific collecting interest than collectors before them. Nearly all collectors have a certain percentage of their collections they would designate as "general", but a surprisingly large number will tell you that their favorite field of insulators is a specialty. Maybe it is an individual power or telephone company. Perhaps its a specific CD number or even a color. But once his or her interest becomes concentrated within a narrow range, then that collector also qualifies as a specialist.

As the 1970's advanced into the early 1980's, the phase of specialization within our hobby became more apparent. During this period, the classified ads in CROWN JEWELS magazine show collectors wanting to buy specific categories of glass and/or porcelain insulators. More old-time collections were sold to dealers and now the dealers could segregate the newly bought collection into categories. Then these categories would be matched to the specialists of that category and often a dealer could sell a substantial number of pieces to relatively few individuals. The result was quite often that dealers could recover a large percentage of their total cash outlay very quickly. Then the general portion of the collection would be advertised by monthly publication or sale flyers.

Today's specialists are highly competitive and most will tell you they are "hair splitters." If they see an insulator for sale that falls into their specialty, they will compare it inside out, upside down, and in all intensities of light hoping to find it is a "teensy weensy" bit different from anything they own. I know specialists who will buy an insulator to take home and compare with those in their specialty. They figure it is better to but it now, even though it may be a duplicate, than to pass on it and take a chance of losing out later. Of course, during that consideration period in which they are making up their mind, they most likely noticed the competing specialists hovering behind them, just waiting for their chance to pounce. But their chance rarely comes, because competition between specialists has now reached an unprecedented point. Specialists now buy pieces known to be duplicates, simply because they recognize rarity and value. Sometimes these duplicates are reserved for "trade only" and a specialist will attempt to pry loose a desired insulator owned by a competing specialist. This practice seems to have originated among the highly competitive collectors of California glass.

In the past few years, waiting lists and "firsties" buy rights have become common. One specialist will ask another for first buy rights on a much needed insulator. It may be many years before these rights come to fruition -- if ever. But just knowing where your number one want is displayed and that you have asked for first buy rights seems to appease some of our competitive nature.

So, in the early 1970's, it was O.K. to say "an amber is an amber." Because back then, we did not know how many different shades and tints existed. And very frankly, no one cared! But in today's phase of specialization, this no longer holds true. Gone are the days when collectors were motivated by what they read in the monthly column of "New Finds" that might have consisted of a California helmet one month, an S.B.T.&T. CO. keg the next, and perhaps a Jeffrey mine insulator in the succeeding issue. Today that still interest some collectors, but interest this general in nature has waned since "the group" disappeared.