MUDSLIDE --- IN NEW MEXICO By Tommy Bolack


 Upon getting into trouble I was told it was electricity and was to be left alone, however, an interest would not go away.


Anything electrical within reach


was fair game for dismantling and study. The search for these kind of things began throughout my neighborhood and with the help from friends expanded throughout the local area.


Family Photo around 1957 Guess what 6 yr old Tommy is holding... You guess it is an INSUR (insulator)


Walking along telephone and power line poles yielded wire, connectors, discarded equipment and of course, insulators! I was unable to pronounce the word “insulators” and I called them “insurs”. Soon after a summer trip to Kansas  desire to begin collecting glass insulators. Visiting that local power company scrap yard found an unbelievable junk pile of cobalt, amber and aqua glass insulators piled in mounds, destined for the dump. “Take all you want FREE”---I couldn’t be quicker to do that! (up to my limit of 3 apple boxes that I was allowed to bring home) The insulator bug had certainly bitten me beginning a life long collecting 


The following year in 1962 on a family trip to Bushton, Kansas a telephone company scrap yard yielded new shapes, colors, and again, were free for the taking. Upon arriving home in New Mexico the line up on four shelves, which my next door neighbor had helped me to build in my bedroom, was surprising.


December 2018 53


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