[Rockhounds] vaseline glass, marbles, glowing in the dark and trucks

[J. R. Hodel]

Hi:

West Virginia once had dozens of glass factories, some industrial (Libby-Owens-Ford plant with 12 100 foot stacks) and some art glass, like Fenton and Blenko.  Mostly they're closed now by the import trade.  The left-behind exotic minerals once used to color the glass present a challenge to the clean-up years later, as you can imagine.  Even dumps of broken glass behind the plant containing uranium or whatever are (I think) considered significant enough to require cleanup.

The Fiesta ceramics did once use uranium compounds for brilliant colors, but I believe this is no longer the case.  When I get home I'll try it out to be sure...  I have some really old vaseline glass from my Mom which is pretty reactive to UV and which presents plenty of ionized particles to the counter, and some newer glass which still clicks a little.

Mom lived on a small farm outside a small town in the 1930s, and when the gypsies came around with their caravan/carnival, they would set up in my Grandparents' field.  As the "landlord's daughter" she seemed to win a ton of cheap iridescent glass junk at the games of skill.  Being so cheap to her, she didn't make any effort to protect it, and most broke in the course of being played with.

Some years ago she took some to a old-time antique show and got what she regarded as astronomical offers for it, and sold most of it then for 2 or 3 hundred apiece - imagine if she still the dozens or hundreds from all the summer carnivals!  

So I wound up with only a few pieces, but it all glows in UV and it all makes the counter click!  I know there are still marbles being made in WV, and Fenton and Blenko are still in business, but it's a tiny shade of the business that once was.  [AD] Anyone willing to let go of a couple of glowing marbles, let me know.

I'm still torn between Ford's F-350 Powerstroke and the Dodge with the in-line Cummins - if anyone has a telling detail that would make the difference one way or the other, please pitch in to the conversation.  Otherwise I'm probably going to go with the Cummins, just because there are so many Dodge 3500s  in Cochise county, AZ.  If it's just that the local Dodge dealer out there has a better diesel mechanic, that's OK by me.

Take care, and Keep on Rockin'
JR in WV

       
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