Mac's Believe It or Not!
by John McDougald

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", December 2002, page 11

Believe It Or Not! I thought when Mrs. Mac turned over the editorship of Crown Jewels of the Wire to Howard and Linda Banks that our schedule would begin to lighten up a bit. To the contrary, Carol and I seem to have stepped up the pace a bit! 

Just to clear any rumors as to what we are going to be doing with our new found "extra time", here are our plans for the upcoming months. 

1. I will conclude my second career eight-year teaching duties in Business Finance and Accounting at Northern Illinois University in May.
2. A new Price Guide for Insulators will be compiled and published which we hope will be available at the 2003 National in Springfield, Ohio 
3. Carol will continue the gathering of photos (she has already taken over 25,000 pictures since August) of glass insulators which we will be compiling into a new full color reference book on North American Glass Pin Type Insulators available in 2003.
4. For the time being, we will continue to produce the NIA Commemorative for the national convention annually. 
5. Our home in Illinois will be readied to place on the market in early spring. We need to sell all of our sales stock that now occupies a good part of our garage and we will drastically reduce our private collection. Most of the collection and current sales stock will be available after the first of the year at Grampa Mac's Insulator Emporium (www.insulatoremporium.com)
6. As soon as our home in Illinois sells, Carol and I will head for Sedona, Arizona (see cover) where we plan to either build on our lot or purchase an existing home. We are leaving our options open at this point. 
7. Then the fun part begins -- we will be able to concentrate on enjoying our parents, children and grandchildren, play some golf, participate in some of the western region insulator shows and swaps.

Howard Banks has asked that I continue to contribute to the magazine, and I will do my best to put together an article on a semi-regular basis? (At least I won't have the retiring editor hanging over my desk asking for that last minute copy!) 

Believe It Or Not! -- There's more? 

Yes, the 2003 Price Guide is still in the process of making additions, (There are nearly 2,000 new entries to date), and I ask that anyone who wants to participate in pricing of specialty areas to contact me. And, if you have new listings, please make them known as soon as possible. 

We are also open to suggestions as to the contents on the new full color book. Our desire is to have fresh, new material. Would you like to have your collection photographed for inclusion in CD variations. Drop us your suggestions. Gus Stafford has drawn scale drawings digitally for all threaded and threadless CDs, spools, battery rests, etc. They will be included in the new price guide and reference book.

 Plus, we will be working with Bill Meier to develop an interactive Price Guide which will use our database, digital scale drawings and Mrs. Mac's photographs to help the collector catalog his own collection. This project will follow the published books in 2003.