MAC's Believe It Or Not!

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", November 1989, page 15

Our hobby has over the last twenty years had only a scattering of collectors outside of the North American continent. It was exciting for me to realize this summer that we are beginning to grow as an interest group in the European market, due primarily to an article sent by NIA President, Mike Guthrie, to a German Collector's magazine -- complete with color photographs of American insulators. Believe It Or Not!, this magazine boasts of its first collector from The Netherlands and Mike is corresponding with collectors in other parts of Europe.

Ans Galesloot wrote Mrs. MAC upon reading the article in the German publication. Here is her reaction to our hobby, Believe it Or Not!

It was an enormous surprise, your reaction to my simple question about a magazine about insulators. (Mrs. MAC sent insulators and reference books, including books donated by Marilyn Albers to Ans.) The way you handle this matter is food for thought for me, and I must confess that you're not dealing with such an expert as you are yourself. 

We, my husband and I, enjoy it while strolling around, while riding our bicycles and while driving to look for new, unknown insulators which we don't have yet. 

But about identification numbers or checklists we have never thought about. We just felt it was a kind of collection to which we added some items now and then. Sometime ago I said to myself: "I've got these things, but I don't know about it." After that I called the electricity company which is in charge for those means of transporting electric power here. And it was true, there even exists a (non-public) museum about insulators here in the Netherlands. 

The ward told me that there are collector clubs in Germany and in the USA, from which he sent me some articles. Between that documentation I found your address. 

When your mailing arrived and after opening it I didn't know what to think. My initial question to you was just to get some general information about the subject, and then that arrived! Fantastic! 

For us it happened about 20 years ago, when we started to collect insulators. In a forest I found one and I thought it was a beautiful gimmick to stare at on the chimney. After a while me and my children found another, which was placed beside the first one. This second item was even more beautiful then the first one (white porcelain with green stripes), so that how the hobby took off.

Through the years we discovered them in the Netherlands, West Germany, France, Austria, Spain, Portugal and Norway. (Many are U-2027.) Up to now the collection exists of about 100 items, which are placed on shelves in my kitchen. We have made a picture of these.

Later my man, who is a fanatic filmer, will make some more detailed pictures on which the true colors will be more clear. On these shelves there are no large insulators to be seen. Unfortunately we have thrown them away, 'cause they didn't fit too well in this collection. May be stupid, but it's too late now. (Believe It Or Not!, Mrs. MAC just had heart failure!!!)

The collection consists of various colors of porcelain like white, green and brown, as well as glass transparents in various shades of green and magenta. We also have ceramic from Portugal which do not occur in the books that you have sent me. Are they familiar? They differ in shades of grey and wear the inscriptions: G.P.O. We will make detailed pictures from these if you want us to.

In the Netherlands the insulators are not being used anymore except for some remote districts. Some as low as 30 miles altogether. We only find small ones which farmers use to protect their cows from the danger of falling in the water. (As you might know, almost every square mile is circumscribed by water). Nowadays plastic insulators are much m6re common, but we don't collect them.

In France, however, we can still find a lot of them. That's our source for most of our collection. The two insulators you mailed us have company of four other American pieces. They are CD 122 Whitall Tatum #2 and CD 122 Hemingray #16 and CD 152 Hemingray #40 and CD 155 Whitall Tatum #1. I mentioned before that the U-2027 has the inscription 1899 O.H. (Believe It Or Not!, Ans began using the reference materials right away to catalogue her previously "unnamed" collection.) 

There is a possibility that one of my sons, who is leaving for the U.S. in the end of June ,will take some insulators which I have twice and bring them to you. But that's not for sure 'cause he has no schedule for his journey. If not, he or we will mail you these items. Those are insulators found in varying European countries. 

Your call for me corresponding with you is hard to realize since my English is not good enough. The letter you receive was translated by one of my sons. I would like to correspond with you if I could write in Dutch, so not to trouble my sons.

I hope to have informed you enough and to have reduced your eagerness a little and hope to give you more information from the old continent soon. 

Ans Galesloot

Believe It Or Not! the night before Mrs. MAC and I were to leave for the National show in Allentown, we received a surprise call from Guido Galesloot. We had not yet received the above letter from his mother, so it was a shock to know that he had brought insulators from Europe and that he and his girlfriend, Christel, were housed at the American Youth Hostel in downtown Chicago. There was no way we could arrange to meet them before the National and they would have left Chicago to begin a two month holiday in the U.S. by the time we returned from Allentown. What a shame to be so close and not have a chance to meet.

However, upon our return trip home, we picked up our phone messages and Guido had called to say they were still in Chicago. We drove directly into downtown Chicago before returning home so that we could meet our young Dutch friends. We took a great liking to one another and we insisted that they come to St. Charles to visit us before they headed west on their tour of the west.

Guido entertained us with great stories of how he had helped his mother obtain insulators on their family vacations by listening for the humming of electricity along the lines. Mrs. MAC and I spent hours questioning them about their experiences and scanning the photographs of Ans' collection with a magnifying glass. Well, Believe It Or Not!, the rest is history.......

Christel and Guido standing in front of Mrs. MAC's 
kitchen window which now proudly displays the insulators from Ans.

"Believe It Or Not!" Mrs. MAC says that it is imperative --- for the growth and improvement of the hobby's foreign policy---- that she must go to the Netherlands to visit Ans and get a first-hand look at the first Dutch collector's insulators. Somehow she has convinced Marilyn Albers that a "research trip" should be taken next spring. Looks like this is going to get me where it hurts the most --- in my sporran!!!