In the early '70's I was working on my cables near Newark when I saw a crew on the railroad tracks. I stopped to chat for a few minutes. It was a very cold day, below zero! The crew was working on the crossing. I asked them if and when the open wires overhead were coming down. They said not for a while and one asked why. I explained I collected glass insulators. 

To which one man replied, "Do you mind digging?" Pointing down the tracks he said the crews had been tossing glass into a swampy area for many years. That's all it took for me. I thanked them and asked who the land belonged to. They said it was railroad land. Just to be safe I stopped at the farm house down the road and asked the farmer who the land near the tracks belonged to. He said it was his, and gave me permission to check out the swamp. He actually got quite a laugh out of the fact that I wanted any of the junk dumped there.

The next Saturday, with the temperature still below zero, I started out along the tracks to the site. The weeds were all dead. Ice covered a good part of the area... about 100 feet by 50 feet. The first insulator I found was a CD 210 Postal in mint condition. I still have it. There were beehives all over the place, and I found half of a Boston Bottle Works rim embossed. 

Needless to say I went back several more times and found many Posta Is, several good HG Co beehives in a very nice yellow green, many Brookfields, but never the other half of the Boston Bottle.

But on the way out of the swamp on a nice spring Saturday, I was looking at all the glass still in use on the lines along the tracks. I saw a beehive up there in a different color. What could it be? When I got home, I found that the color was the same as the half of the Boston. Did I go back there the next Saturday?

Nope. I took a quick lunch break Monday morning and walked down there with my hooks, safety belt, and a very nice Hemingray 42. I climbed up the pole and looked at that beauty for a second. Saw the embossing on the bottom. Boston Bottle Works. Wow!

I unwrapped the tie wire, unscrewed the insulator and put it very carefully into a pouch. My heart was beating 90 miles an hour. I carefully screwed on the #42 , rewrapped the wire, climbed down, took off my hooks, and headed for my truck as fast as I could go. When I got back to the truck I took the Boston out of my pouch. Held it up to the sun and checked it out for flaws. It was mint. Again, Wow!

Never did finish digging the swamp. Eventually forgot about it until the other day.