I fondly remember how my love of insulators began. It was in April of 1976 and I was 15. My friend and I decided to go mushroom hunting about a mile down a gravel road from my home. He parked the truck at the side of the road near the mushroom spot. I was familiar with this road because I had traveled it many times. .

I don't know why, but his time I notice a row of about 6 or 7 short telephone poles. Since some of the wires were down, I realized they were no longer in use. My attention was immediately drawn to the insulators. I was suddenly fascinated that there were different colors of insulators. Most of them were clear but one pole had a "BLUE" one.

All of the time we were hunting mushrooms I couldn't stop thinking about the insulators! When we got back to the truck I let my friend know about my new-found curiosity, and told him we should try to get some of the insulators, especially the "blue" one. He agreed, so we walked through the ditch to the pole. The pole was taller than I, so my friend told my to stand up on his shoulders. I was just a skinny kid and he was a a lot heavier than I, so l didn't argue. I could not easily reach the insulators, I shakily took the wire of the "blue" one, unscrewed it form the pin, and carefully handed it down to my friend. Other insulators was clear, and I got if off the pin and climbed down. I quickly looked at the insulators. The clear one was a Hemingray 10, and the "blue" one (now I know it was an aqua CD 102 pony) had a star on each side. At the time I thought that Hemingray was a very unusual name, and I thought that an insulator embossed with stars was very mysterious. I got four more of the Hemingray 10's that day before we went home.

It is a great feeling to remember that day, and the "blue" one is still my favorite in my collection today.