I had just put the second one down and he handed me an extremely dark olive with wisps of amber in it. “WOW”, says I. Counting on more that were just common, I was perfectly happy with these when he handed me a deep yellow mustard with red amber heavy globs and streaks.


I’m absolutely positive my weak knees, shaking limbs, pouring sweat like a rain king sprinkler akin to a farmers’ irrigation tool, I knew a bolt of lightening was coming. Just seeing these with only one owner-WOW.


I asked where the 5th one was. He tilted the box to allow one more 126 to roll around loosely and it fell into his hand. As he caught it another 126 was revealed to expose one dark purple with bubbles and a very large “belly button” that formed when a huge bubble got trapped between the mould and the glass (the insulator shown at the start of this article).


  living well but without any frills so I just did it and paid it forward. Then I took my investigation further with his information into exactly who else worked with him to dismantle the line. We went to one of his friends and he showed me a hundred poles. Now get this, his corral was all 1870s iron poles but the man did not keep any insulators.


Here’s the retired telephone lineman with some of the insulators Mike got that day.


28


Crown Jewels


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