MAC's Believe It Or Not!

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", November 1986, page 17

MY TRIP TO INDIANA

Believe It or Not, I finally got around to cleaning out the rolltop desk several months ago. From inside one of those tiny sort bins, a small slip of paper fell out with a name and address of an insulator collector written on it. Looking at the name, it dawned on me that I had been given the name by Ken and Naomi Roach over a year ago. They said that, "Steve Bunish had been one of the early 'excavators' at the Hemingray dump in Muncie, Indiana. Maybe he would be interested in selling his collection someday."

	The lead claw has a threaded pin hole which takes a standard pin. By the way, the claw is tucked away safely in my "sporran" and will be kept in the clan.

Since I would be heading to St. Charles for a show in October, I decided to contact Steve and see if he would be interested in selling his collection. We arranged for my arrival to talk insulators. It was a great experience to discuss the early "finds" that Steve and others had turned over in the dump as we sat and had a glass of fresh apple cider -- the first of the season.

You have seen the pictures, so you all know what I am about to tell you. Steve's shovel, Believe It Or Not, turned up a Harloe Claw -- IN LEAD -- right in the middle of the Hemingray dump!! You ask yourself, "but I thought Harloe's were made out on the East Coast -- Pennsylvania or New Jersey, not in America's heartland!!" Well, it remains to be proven by some in-depth research why Hemingray would have made such an item. The mould markings are not like any other glass claw that has been found, so it wasn't a "copy." Maybe it is a "mould warmer." Whatever research exposes, it certainly provided a link between Hemingray and Harloe's insulator. What do you think?

CD 739.2 "The Stovepipe"

Speaking of the Luck o' the Scottish, I had an adventure the second day on my way to St. Charles. The TODAY SHOW said that there were tornado warnings due west, and I decided that was a good reason to go in another direction to the Chicago area. I called an Indiana collector and asked if I might stop by to photograph some of the great Hemingray pieces that are in their collection. During the photo session, I was informed that the next door neighbor was wanting to sell a collection of insulators. This was like a miracle that I had happened on the scene.

The interesting thing about any collection is that there is ALWAYS something in it that is just a little different than anything you have ever seen. This was true once again. A trip to a Wisconsin antique store many years ago had netted the beautiful stovepipe threadless pictured on this page. It is the ONLY one known to exist and was used in the Milholland book. What a beauty! "Big Blues" and "Leffert's Hats" have quite a bit of glass in them, but this insulator is extremely thin-walled for an insulator of its size. It may explain why some insulator diggers have found only bits and pieces. It also helps to reaffirm that "new" finds don't just come from the ground. Sometimes they come from the shelves of the early collectors. Believe It Or Not!