Glass Insulators by Stanley

Updated on 9-30-2022

Sadly, I post this update By Rick Grenda
Stanley Hammell and his glass insulator collection.
For years, Stanley collected these, many found along the old abandon railroad lines of South Jersey.
He displayed them in his Galloway Twp yard.
Had the pleasure of visiting it several times.
He passed away in 2012 and later the property was sold, and the insulators were removed.

The massive fences caught my eye, so I pull over and started photographing, thinking what was this collection of Telephone pole insulators all about. I spied a gentleman at the back of the property and walked over to talk to him. He introduced himself as Stanley and was the owner of the property and had collected these glass insulators from all over the country.

Stanley had quite a story and as I listened to it, and I felt his?loneliness?and listened to his story of failing health and it was sad, but he said because I stopped he was thankful for my visit and I had made him a promise that I will go back and visit him again to see how he’s doing. If you are driving by, please stop and say hi to Stanley, he would love the company.

I thought of Stanley yesterday as a song called the Sad Lonely Bird played on the radio. We all experience?loneliness?at some point and search out a human companion ship, and some of us feed off this human need. In the predator – prey relationship, the predator only takes what he/she needs for food to survive. Balance is natures way.

It sways on the wind,
as it folds into the words.
Moves with the dust and sounds on
the shifting, uneven air
until it reaches the ears of a sad lonely girl.
She falls asleep with tears seeping,
sliding across the bridge of her nose,
to the sad, lonely song of a sad, lonely bird.

The bird dies sad and lonely.
It’s last song heard only by two:
The others, who didn’t care enough,
and the sad lonely girl.

A bird flies,
separate from the others, wonders
how he got so behind.

A bird scavenges, for food alone,
wonders why they didn’t save any for him.
Why they didn’t save a place for him.

A bird sits on his roost,
watches all the others fly away
to land and rest a ways from him.
He sings to the stars,
asking God why he is so hated.
He cries out, and his sad, lonely song
drifts…