L.A. STORY
During October 1993 I received a phone call from another streetlighting fan, Pete, who lives in a suburb of Los Angeles. Like just about all other streetlighters I have been meeting and corresponding with through the years, Pete has been intrigued by streetlights since childhood. After our first conversation, we have been in continual touch since. He and I have made many trades, providing good revenues for the United States Postal Service and United Parcel Service. Fixtures and streetlights accessories of many descriptions have crisscrossed the country a great many times, enhancing our collections. From these exchanges I have been able to swap, for some highly unusual and rare vintage mercury lamps that I either never knew existed or thought I would never own in this lifetime. His light bulb specialty is old incandescents and it pleased me when I found a few early types of considerable rarity that he happily added to his collection. After a couple years of many lengthy phone conversations and long letters, we finally met in June 1994 when he came to the Boston area for several days. In 1996 we again met when I took a trip with a fellow collector to Long Beach to attend a large insulator show there. Following the insulator event, we were treated to a tour of some of the nicest series incandescent radial-wave and pendant type fixtures in the Los Angeles vicinity. Pete knew where all the "good" lights were! I was truly thrilled while gawking at all of these beautiful luminaries still in service. I am certain that no other portion of the country has any such concentration of vintage fixtures. Supplementing this delight was a pre-arranged tour of the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting's facilities and museum. This V.I.P. presentation was made possible by the Bureau's Assistant Director who was most cordial and gracious enough to devote an entire afternoon with me, Pete and Jeff.
Throughout my Los Angeles area streetlighting tours I took nearly 120 photographs, developed into my standard 5 by 7 inch size, many of which were close-up in nature. Much fixture detail can be seen from these prints, which I always enjoy looking at from time to time. In addition, I videotaped much of what I photographed. I am hoping by the time I return there someday that these fixtures will have remained undisturbed. My fear is that lamp manufacturers have started to discontinue making some of the smaller size/lower light output series replacement lamps and the trend seems to be they are on their way to also phasing out some of the larger sizes as well. Among my most fervent wishes is that the utilities in the Los Angeles area will retain their "dinosaur" streetlights, even if it eventually means they have no choice to upgrade the fixture to a more available light source.
STREETLIGHTS ALONG THE INTERNET!
By 1996 I hadn't known much about the Internet, however about that time streetlighting enthusiasts around the country who had access to the net started to find each other. I was absolutely astonished when I discovered that there were so many streetlight lovers out there around the country, via a good collector friend, Marvin Suggs, who had already seen a few streetlight websites and had been e-mailing with several other similar enthusiasts. I was introduced to Marvin in late 1996 through an insulator collector who knew both of us were into streetlights. Marvin has been instrumental in acquainting me with the many other streetlighting enthusiasts around the world. It amazes me to this day how many others share the same avocation! I had the distinct pleasure to meet Marvin and his girlfriend, Michelle, when they came all the way from Houston, Texas to visit during August 1997. I treated him to a complete tour of my collection and viewing of some of the more interesting lights that are still in use in this area. Indeed we had a fantastic time together! Today I really enjoy corresponding with all my streetlighting enthusiast friends from all over the country, whom I would have never met if it hadn't been for Marvin and other streetlighting websites that are out there and for the Internet itself. This modern wonder of communication has certainly pulled together an impressive and growing number of streetlight enthusiasts who otherwise would have thought they were the only ones interested in this avocation.