It was the end of September, and vacation time was upon us. Berny and I were looking forward to one of our favorite trips at this time of year -- spending a few days on Cape Cod and then driving into upper New England to enjoy the Fall foliage. One stop on our itinerary was going to be at a little antique shop in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, which I had visited back in 1972.

At that time, I had just started collecting insulators and knew practically nothing about them. While browsing around in this particular shop, I was amazed to find several shelves of beautiful colored glass insulators. A set of Diamond ponies in a rainbow of colors...and even insulators in carnival glass! The clerk noticed by interest and proceeded to point out a particular rare insulator in a glass display case. It was a rather unappealing clear glass cylinder, and she explained how it was originally covered with wood to protect it from being broken by the Indians. I lost interest very quickly when I saw the $150 price tag on it, and I proceeded to happily shell out $20 for a beautiful purple Diamond pony. Some time later, after purchasing a copy of Milholland's book and learning more about the fascinating hobby, I realized that the clear glass cylinder in the shop was a CD 724 unembossed "CHESTER" threadless! Wouldn't it really be something if that threadless was still in that shop, now fifteen years later!

The first stop on our journey was at the NIA Eastern Regional Show in Kulpsville, Pennsylvania. There was a beautiful display of Wade-type insulators at that show, which included a cobalt CD 724. I pointed it out to Berny that the cobalt insulator in the display just happened to be the same style of threadless which I would maybe find waiting for me in the Maine antique shop. Upon leaving the show to head towards Cape Cod, Carol McDougald, whom I had previously told the aforementioned story to, jokingly reminded me to be sure to let them photograph the "Chester" when we got back home! I knew she really didn't think that we'd find it still sitting in that show after fifteen years any more than we did!

Our first day on Cape Cod was going to be devoted to sightseeing and antiquing. After several hours of browsing in a dozen or so shops, I was getting anxious to get to one of our favorite restaurants, so I drove by a couple of antique and craft shows without stopping. As I tend to get uptight about passing by ANY antique shop, Berny suggested that we turn around and just quickly stop to check the shops out.

The second shop which we backtracked to was really a craft shop, which would be more appealing to Berny than to myself, but they did have a few antiques scattered about in the rear. As I surveyed the room, I spotted a few common insulators sitting on a shelf next to a colorful display of cobalt blue glass, which consisted of a Bromo-Seltzer bottle, a Noxzema jar, and a rather heavy-looking glass tumbler.

Wait a minute! Did I just have a vision of a "Chester" fused into my subconscious member bank, or was that "tumbler" really a cobalt blue CD 724 sitting upside down on its dome??? As I approached the shelf, my pulse rate took off, and with trembling hands, I carefully put a choke-hold on it. It looked right, it felt right, the price was right, and I was sure that it was! After regaining my composure, I humorously thought what a shame it was that the "tumbler" didn't come with the early wooden counterpart to one of those insulating Styrofoam "jackets" which you see people walking around with a picnics!

Making sure that no one else was around, I let out a loud whisper for Berny to come over and share in my excitement. She also couldn't believe that we really would be going back home with one of those rare "Winchesters," as she would occasionally call them. Being a practical, budget-conscious gal who was learning the art of dickering, she suggested that I ask the salesclerk if she could do any better on the price (which she did, as if it really mattered)!

With a greedy vision that another "tumbler" might replenish the one that was sold, we revisited the shop a few days later before leaving the area. Unfortunately, we were assured that the original owner of the item, who had acquired it at an auction some years before, did not have another one.

Well, it took fifteen years of searching, but I finally experienced the excitement of an honest-to-goodness antique shop "find." Incidentally, the antique shop in Maine was still there, but the clear "Chester" was long gone. But we were coming home with a "Chester", and we chuckled each time we thought of how Editor Carol was not going to believe this story. Was it just luck...or did our "wishful thinking" really have something to do with it? Maybe next year we'll vacation out West and revisit that little shop in which I once passed up the chance to buy a map to the Lost Dutchman's Mine!