Long before I even knew what insulators were, I collected postage stamps. It became
inevitable that once I started to collect insulators
(with a little help from my husband Bill)
I would collect stamps that were related to the hobby of insulator collecting! When the Go-Withs
pages came on line, there was an obvious opportunity for me to show off some of my Insulators
on Stamps, as well as to generate interest in this combination of two wonderful
hobbies.
It was a big surprise, and an honor, when I was contacted via e-mail by one of the
editors of Linn's Stamp News
,
my favorite philatelic publication. Linn's is a weekly stamp magazine with over 64,000
subscribers. Michael Baadke, the editor of the monthly "Topics and Themes"
column, had seen my web page and was interested in the items I displayed. He wondered if I
might be interested in writing an article on the topic "Insulators on Stamps",
and submitting it to Linn's for possible publication. I was thrilled with this
opportunity, and immediately wrote back with a positive response.
I asked Michael how he had found our website, as I could not imagine he was searching for the word "insulators." He replied "I'm sure I was looking for something completely different, but I clicked on your site, probably because I've `collected' all of three insulators, Hemingrays of various configurations, and was intrigued by your listing among the Alta Vista results."
As any writer knows, accepting an "assignment" and actually doing it are two different things entirely. Reality finally set in, and I had to get to work. One of the most important things I learned (fortunately in advance) is to have the illustrations in hand before writing the article. The most limiting factor I encountered was finding appropriate material for illustrations. Although there are over 700 stamps relating to insulators in my database, and I have over 100 myself, I wished for the freedom to go out and photograph what I wanted to show! I had no stamps showing threadless insulators, or nice big power pieces. Come to think of it, there aren't a lot of stamps that show nice close-up views of insulators! But of course, since the article was about stamps, I had to do the best I could with stamps.
I am currently awaiting a reply from Linn's Stamp News, letting me know if my article has been accepted for publication. Even if it is not accepted, I enjoyed writing it, and I will be glad to share it with all of you at the Insulators website. If it is accepted, I have permission to post it on the Web two months after publication in Linn's.
I know of a handful of others in the insulator hobby who also collect insulators on stamps, and three of them have helped me get started, all in different ways. I suspect there are more collectors who share this interest, and I would love to hear from you, perhaps to help you on your own journey! You can send me e-mail at .
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Written Sunday, January 12, 1997