Editorial
by Dora Harned
Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", March 1970, page 3

HERE IT IS OUR ANNIVERSARY! One whole year has gone by since "Crown Jewels" became a reality. It is amazing the things we have learned in one short year, and our sincere hope is that "Crown Jewels" has also helped you in some way.

This magazine was started without even the proverbial "shoestring" but with a great desire to help other collectors of insulators. Since we are collectors and hadn't been collecting quite a year when we started this magazine, we realized the problems of new collectors trying to meet other collectors with the same interests, in the hope of trading to add to their collection, plus gaining more knowledge of insulators. It has been like a treasure hunt, with new insulators turning up every day, and new collectors, also. There are still many collectors within a radius of a hundred miles in our own area that we haven't met. The way this hobby has grown is fantastic and wonderful. Our object is to help it grow and become one of the top hobbies of the country. We are being recognized, and will be more and more, if we all work together. You notice how many sales and shows now include insulators in their advertising. Most leading trade (antique) journals include a page or two on insulators as a monthly feature, and the authors of insulator books are constantly revising and printing new books. We still don't have all the facts and knowledge we yearn for. There is still much to be uncovered and learned concerning insulators. Will we ever unravel the mysteries of all the glass companies and why this certain insulator was made, by whom, or what was the object of a certain feature, when was it made, in how many different styles and colors? 

This is the fun of it all. And "Crown Jewels" was born to help by trying to print everyone's views, ideas, and facts. So we can discuss and learn together. To try to shorten the distance between collectors from the South, East, North, West and all in between.

We are trying to bring you the news of what is happening concerning insulators and the collectors of insulators in all corners of this great country and Canada. But we can only print what is sent in. If we don't know about it, we can't print it. This seems like a good place to thank all of our contributors of the past year. A GREAT BIG SINCERE THANK YOU. It would have been an impossible task without you. I feel every contributor has had sincere interest in his fellow collector and a desire to help him gain the knowledge he is striving for, plus what he could look forward to possibly by adding to his collection. These contributors have been wonderful enough to give us what they have learned through hours of research, and we are very appreciative.

Now, about the lateness of "Crown Jewels" being received. It seems that this is the biggest and only gripe amongst the subscribers. Part of the lateness is due to the U. S. Mail service, and we can do nothing about this. It would be prohibitive to send the magazine first class, due to the expense involved. You must realize that we are a very small organization. I have done most of the work involved, myself, until recently. Irma Conrad has volunteered to help answer the mail and help with the mailing, plus whatever else she can do. As I've said before, my daughter Doreen Conrad (who lives 250 miles south of us) types the name labels and mails them back to me. When the material is gathered and ready for the publisher, I mail it to Gresham, Oregon, and Mr. Scharffenberg, his wife Myrtle and their daughter Beverly do all the printing and necessary things to make it into a readable and interesting (I hope) magazine. It is then shipped back to me via Greyhound (12 hours), and my mother Irma, myself and anyone we can recruit is drafted to place your name label on the back. It is then sorted and packaged according to zip codes for bulk mailing. Within twelve hours from the time I pick it up at the Greyhound depot it is on its way to you. Sometimes I know it takes three weeks to get to the subscriber, and I'm truly sorry. After all the hard work that goes into it, I would like to be able to hand it to each of you personally, but since this is impossible, the U. S. Mail is the next best thing.

I subscribe to almost all the major trade journals and realize that they have the same problems that we do with the mailings. I could do as some leading trade journals have done and combine two months into one issue to get ahead, but I promised 12 issues for the subscription price, and that's what you are going to get. Or I could just skip one month and extend your subscription another month, as a leading bottle journal has done, but what does that prove? You are still going to be reading the same material regardless of what month is printed on the front cover. So try to forgive us if your "Crown Jewels" is a little late. You will receive 12 issues, if humanly possible, one for each month of the year. When you get a little impatient, try to remember what takes you only a very little time to read has taken us many days and many working hours to gather together and put into a comprehensible form for you to read. We are not complaining -- just trying to give you a better understanding of the effort required to put forth a magazine.

We predict this to be the biggest year yet for insulators, with more new collectors, more lines coming down and more insulator shows, and the only way this hobby of ours can go is up--bigger and better. "Crown Jewels" is here to help you and your hobby. We have a few surprises in store for the subscribers (and contributors of articles) to "Crown Jewels", and some nice things are going to happen this coming year.

Many happy insulators to you.

Sincerely,

Your Editor