Over 40 years ago

[DiamondGroove]

Being a 12 year old growing up in Denver Colorado with several friends in the same age group who shared the same interests in collecting glass insulators helped get me started in collecting. My interest was first started when my new friends I had made in junior high when starting the 7th grade, had several insulators they had gotten from their brothers. I found out how easy it was to find them along the railroad lines around Denver and before I knew it I was going full steam towards building a fairly nice collection. One of the better places I found insulators was on the back of houses in the older parts of town where power lines had at one time been connected. When the houses were up dated the side pegs with glass insulators were bypassed and left unused. Those were great times to collect and I have the best memories and experiances because of insulator collecting.

[Alex]

The hobby has a way of building significant momentum before you realize it. Do you still have any of your "first" pieces?

Alex.

[DiamondGroove]

Hi Alex, I unfortunately had disburst my collection in the early 70's and through the years accumulated some here and there until several years ago I once again became involved in collecting more serious. I still have contact from time to time with some of my collector friends from my early years though. I do believe that a Gregory I had and traded to Esta Brown in 1972 was donated to the Smithsonian Institute by her before she passed away. It was the third best condition one ever found and I traded half of my extensive collection at the time for it. I picked it up at the second NIA National that was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado. My signature can be found in Gerald Browns Book that was about his and his wifes collecting in the "visitors to there house" sign in list. So though I don't have one of my first insulators I could possibly see one that I owned once if I were to visit the Smitsonian Institue and looked through the insulator collection there.