A Decade of Publishing
Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", March 1979, page 3
With this issue Crown Jewels starts on the eleventh year of bringing to you
all the news and happenings of our insulator hobby. It's been a great ten years,
and I am proud and happy that our small journal has been able to survive in a
tough business world. And that we've been able to keep ad prices the same, to
give everyone an opportunity to use the classified section. I'd be lying if I
said there weren't times I was ready to 'throw in the towel' and call it quits;
but I am a very stubborn and determined person -- a firm believer that you can do
anything (within reason, of course) if you just try hard enough.
Much of the
credit for keeping Crown Jewels alive goes to our production staff, and they
have earned my eternal gratitude. Without Myrtle and Richard Scharffenberg and
their family, the production of Crown Jewels for the past ten years would have
been impossible. They have stuck with me through thick and thin, sometimes
against great odds. The first two issues (March and April 1969) were printed
right here in Chico. Then circumstances decreed that the Scharffenberg family
move to Portland, Oregon. I was fit to be tied. But Myrtle assured me they would
continue to do the printing -- all I had to do was send the material to her, and
then they would ship the finished product back to me for addressing and mailing.
We did this for three years. Then Richard's work took them to Riverside,
California, which is just as far south of us as they were north of us before,
approximately 600 miles. So sometimes it's been difficult for both Myrtle and
me, with the distance between us, to compile a comprehensive magazine for you to
read. But most everything runs smoothly, and there are very few phone calls
between us. Again my thanks to the Scharffenberg family.
But there are so many
to thank for your faith in us -- each and everyone out there. I do appreciate your
letters, even if I'm slow in answering. Sometimes I just get snowed under in
mail, and it takes time to get it all answered because there's only me to answer
it. I do have one part time girl (four to eight hours a week), but she usually
takes care of the subscription records, filing and some typing.
A special thanks
to all our many contributors of articles and other material that make up Crown
Jewels each and every month. Our everlasting gratitude to Jack Tod, whose
Porcelain column has run monthly since 1971, and to Ray Klingensmith for the
last twelve months of hard work and research on "Threadless Corner"
and "Patent Pages", also to N. R. Woodward for his "Questions
Answered" column and wonderful letters of encouragement. Others are Gerald
Brown, Alan Rodgers, Bob and Phoebe Adams, Hans and Fritz Kettenburg -- I could go
on and on. If you read Crown Jewels you already know the many, many warm hearted
people who are nice enough to share their knowledge with all of us and make
Crown Jewels so interesting. It would take a whole issue to list everyone, so to
all of you "THANKS" from all of us. You have all helped to keep this
hobby growing.
There is another special group of people I would like to mention and honor in
this issue -- our show hosts and hostesses, past, present, and future. These are
very special people. What would our hobby be like without the shows and sales to
attend? It takes thoughtfulness, determination, stamina, some money and a lot of
hard work, with some worry (thrown in for good measure), to put on a successful
show and sale. So many things can go wrong from the time you set up your show
and advertise it until it actually takes place. A successful show is an
accomplishment. God bless all show hosts and hostesses. I tip my hat to you and
wish you well.
As I conclude this editorial and stuff it in an envelope to send
to our production staff, I say a little prayer that kinda goes like this:
"Please, dear Lord, that I have included everyone who wants to be included
and left out those who wish to be excluded. That there won't be any address
changes or phone number changes--that our fingers have not transposed numbers or
letters on the typewriter so that the addresses will read wrong. That no one who
receives this directory will use it for other than what it is intended for. Also
that no one gets too angry with me for any mistakes we have made."
Should
you find a mistake, just drop me a postcard and let me correct my records.
Thank
you all for believing in Crown Jewels. And here's to the next ten years of
publishing!
Your Editor
Dora
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