Marvin Collins Was....

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", July 1992, page 7

Quaking In His Boots

The most recent quakes centered near Petrolia and Ferndale, California let loose with 6.9, 6.2 and 6.5 shakes. The last one must have given us at least 12 hard one inch shakes in rapid successions, the worst persistent shaking in memory of Eureka residents. We are on the northern coast about thirty miles from the epicenter.

Insulators do break when they fall onto each other. My glass insulator displays are both on the second floor level which sways even more. Like the tall electric powerline poles that were swinging nearly two feet. Although the shelves are tilted 5/16" toward the rear, virtually the top three shelves in the den display were emptied.

Since my nicest CD 121 tolls were on the top shelf they took a beating. I surely got choked up to see some of them in shatters. Like my first insulator -- a lowly Am.Tel. & Tel. Co., but it was loaded with Midwest limestone and bubbles. The only CD 121 found in a pile of crossarms left on my sister's farm in southwest Wisconsin. 

A big "find" that started me collecting with ten different No.9 and No. 12 Hemingrays. Sister, Dorothy, encouraged me when she said that Antique shops charged big money for those things. And some do! 

Three others that were tough to lose were a lavender tint Am. Tel. & Tel. Co. toll (Denver mold), a very unusual CD 134 medium blue cobalt 1871 dated, and the 1871 dated CD 104 variation (p. 9, Vol. II McDougald)

Bottom shelf items aren't safe either as they get beat up by ricocheting glass. Lost were a CD 323 carnival and the big CD 327 Pyrex. (Sorry, Bruce!)

Some others lost were two blue UPRR's, an Am. Tel. & Tel. Co. "hat", CD 162.4 purple, CD 133.1 Homer Brooks, and my favorite pony, a SCA N.W.&B.I.T. Forty-one of my better items were trashed and another thirty were damaged.

It was a joy though to pick up some insulators to find them undamaged, or only slightly chipped -- like the amber T-HE CO. And like the thrill of not finding any dings on the CD 317.5 Chambers, even though a broken C.E.L. was on top of it. And to have the two cobalts featured in the February, 1992 Crown Jewels "Mac's Believe It Or Not!" safely packed in a box. The "4 dot" embossed CD 168.5 variation even stayed on the shelf. 

Hindsight being great, I have now added a piano wire retainer to the front of every shelf. My wife, Gloria, also lost many glass items and so we are trying to secure glassware better. During the 6.9 noon jolting, Gloria clung to an upstairs doorframe. She was scared stiff watching all the bathroom cabinets being emptied upon the counter, and hearing crashing glass from all areas of the house.

The earth is constantly changing shape as many along the Pacific rim know. The Petrolia area had over 2,000 recorded quake movements last week, and I understand that the L.A. area records about 30 weekly. So everyone needs to safeguard valuables that may break.