"How did you start collecting insulators?" is a question I'm asked by non-collectors. For me, it was an odd fascination for telephone poles and power lines I've had since I was in diapers and never outgrew. Mother claims the first words out of my mouth were "telephone pole".

I was born in Glendora, California, a relatively rural town in those days (1960's) before it became yet another Los Angeles suburb. I remember being fascinated by the wires and poles behind the house, and the big towers on the nearby hills carrying the Hoover Dam power lines to LA. Riding in the car, I was always watching the telephone poles go by one by one, studying their construction.

By the time I was in kindergarten, we had moved 25 miles to La Canada. Shortly after, in 1968, Southern California Edison rebuilt the 66-kv line running along Foothill Boulevard; replacing the suspension strings with line posts. Coming home from kindergarten, I'd be wondering, "How many telephone poles did the men fix today?" Of course I didn't know what an insulator was, but even so I dreamed of having one of those "thingies" that held the wire to the pole. Actually, I wanted the entire pole.

I got my first two insulators as a teenager in early 1977 from a friend, Joe Delurgio. They were a Hemingray #42 and a #40. Later that year I found a clear Hemi #9 at a yard sale. When my tenth grade industrial arts teacher had some insulators in his classroom, I was stoked! And when he said they were collectors' items, I was a collector. Joe started a collection of his own, and we were joined by another friend, Carlos Jordan.

A wayward frisbee really kicked my collecting into high gear. While playing frisbee golf in 1978, another boy's frisbee got away from him and landed outside the course in a fenced-in enclosure. As he retrieved his frisbee, he shouted, "Hey, look at all the souvenir bottles!" I walked over to see what he was talking bout. My eyes popped out of their sockets when I observed dozens of crossarms and over a hundred insulators.

After school, Joe, Carlos and I returned to the enclosure. The gate was open so we simply walked in, helped ourselves to as many insulators as we could carry, and got back to school in time to catch the bus home. This became a frequently repeated pattern for months.

About once a week a fresh supply of insulators would be brought in from somewhere, so there was often something new to swipe. We got Hemingray 42's, 45's, 16's, 56's, Whitall Tatum #1's, HK Porters, and an occasional McLaughlin or Maydwell. We also bought insulators from our teacher, who introduced us to Crown Jewels magazine and to the CD numbering system.

I remember the first porcelain power piece I ever got. Joe and I were playing racketball at the high school's outdoor court and the ball rolled into some bushes. Joe went in to get it and shouted, "Jim, there's an insulator here!"

He held up a large, brown porcelain insulator. It wasn't mint, and the underglaze ink said it was made in 1964. But, to me, it was beautiful. After school, I had the insulator beside me while waiting for the bus. When it came, I got on and was nearly home when I realized, "The insulator?" I had left it behind.

Once home, I grabbed my bike and pedaled madly the two miles back to school. Amazingly, the insulator was still there. Now I had a new problem. "How do I get this big, heavy insulator home on my bike?"

The answer was to balance the insulator precariously on the handlebars and walk the bike home. Two miles. Up hill, of course. The insulator threatened to fall to the pavement every step of the way. I did very well and managed to get the insulator within two doors of my house before the inevitable happened. It became my first "kitsulator".

In 1979 my family moved to Hawaii. I found few insulators there, but obtained many through my friend, Carlos. I subscribed to Crown Jewels in 1984, and attended my first insulator show the next year. It was the Western Regional in Bakersfield.

Sadly, my first insulator show was Carlos' last. He was electrocuted in January, 1986 while trying to remove an insulator from a pole. I didn't know about his death until I read about it in the February, 1986 issue of CJ. I was devastated, but still wanted to collect insulators.

In 1992 I traveled to Taiwan. Like any insulator collector visiting a foreign country, I was hoping to bring back appropriate souvenirs for my collection. I managed to get six insulators out of Taiwan. The best was a white porcelain one with an orange stripe and bright blue underglaze ink.

I was living in Los Angeles in 1994 when the Northridge Earthquake struck at 4:00 in the morning on January 17th, collapsing buildings and freeway overpasses. When the shaking stopped, I got my flashlight and scouted for damage. My apartment sustained no damage, but I was distressed to see, that a collection of Hemingray insulators that had been displayed in a light box had been thrown in a heap on the floor.

Waiting until daylight to fully assess the damage, I found I was lucky compared to some of my fellow collectors that day. I only lost nine insulators.

The National Insulator Association's 1996 National Show in Long Beach, just 40 miles from my house, was the best show I ever attended. Fred Padgett's McLaughlin display was so large I think the hotel had to build an extra wing just to accommodate it!

This year, I moved to Phoenix, Arizona with the help of long-time collector friend Joe Delurgio and a friend of his. Today I own about 300 insulators, 200 of which are Hemingrays. One would think after 27 years of adventure, my collection would be much larger. While it is small compared to many others, the insulators are still my pride and joy. I'll always enjoy looking at my crown jewels of the wire.