Brea Man’s Collection Includes a Lot of Ringers, but They’re All the Real Thing

You might wonder why Doug Swain of Brea has a coin-operated telephone booth on his patio, right near his working traffic signal. Or for that matter, why there are 115 different telephones in his house, but only one is hooked up.

In a way, his conglomeration of instruments is quite an accomplishment, since he decided just four years ago to collect telephones, a hobby that has about 500 collectors like Swain searching the country for rare old phones that can cost up to several thousand dollars.

“I spent an entire week in the New England states looking in antique stores and businesses for old phones and only bought two,” said Swain, 51, whose den wall and counters are lined with talking devices made between 1895 and 1942.

He said that 350 American companies made telephones during that period.

Swain also has two 1910 switchboards that he restored to original working condition. All 115 instruments have been restored to working order, including a 1909 French telephone with a separate earpiece that allowed a mother to monitor daughter-boyfriend conversations.

Swain says he has paid an average of about $100 for most of his phones, which he has found in such unlikely locations as old mom and pop stores. “But there are some phones that sell for $2,000 and more,” he said.

Collecting may be the main point, but the adventure is in the hunt, Swain said. “I was in this store and noticed an old phone sitting on the floor, so I bent down to take a look,” he said. “Farther back under the desk I could see the talking piece of another phone so I brought that out, too. I bought both of them. It was quite a find.”

He points out that he is not considered a big collector, considering that one collector in Escondido has 4,000 phones. At that level, he said, the hobby can become big business because the worth of collectible phones increases an average of about 15% each year.

“But I do this strictly as a hobby and to learn the technology of phones and how they work,” said Swain, who works as a telecommunications expert for Beckman Industrial in Fullerton and lectures on the history of the telephone and telecommunications.

Swain also serves on an advisory board for a proposed National Museum for Computers and Telecommunications, which would promote telephone exhibits recounting the history of all telephones. The board hopes to locate the museum in Orange County.

Today, on World Peace Day, the children of Grace Lutheran Church will be hoping that their peace messages reach Europe. Or Asia. Or Africa.

“The wind current flows that way,” said church spokeswoman June Welton, “so there’s a good chance the balloon they released (on Sept. 7) will reach its destination.”

The five-foot balloon with attached messages of peace written by the children was painted to resemble the Earth.

“We’re concerned with peace, and part of the value of the balloon was to sensitize our children into thinking in terms of being a peacemaker,” Welton said. “Our hopes and prayers were that we could be a planet of peace.”

Of all things, there’s an ocean kayak company in Coast Mesa and owner Larry Robinson, 35, of Irvine doesn’t see anything unusual about it. “It’s been a big sport in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska and it’s growing here,” insisted Robinson, who feels that paddling the 16- to 18-foot craft “is a joy for people who enjoy solitude and island exploration.”

He said an ocean kayaking club he formed now has 120 members, all people “who enjoy the outdoors, are self-reliant and independent.”

They also spell a growing market for Robinson’s fiberglass kayaks, which cost about $1,600.

Married life for many is a fulfilling adventure that can use an occasional tune-up of sorts, or at least that’s what about 30 couples at Anaheim United Methodist Church thought when they decided to renew their wedding vows.

“I’ve helped individual couples repeat their vows, but this was the first time I’ve officiated at a group renewal,” said Pastor Robert Shepard, 51, who said that people today seem to want to deepen their marital relationships.

“That’s why our marriage encounter program is so popular.”

Shepard and assistant Pastor Clark Robb, 61, know a good thing when they see one. Both men and their wives repeated their marriage vows, too.

Acknowledgments--Jan Wagner, 36, a bus driver in the Orange County Transit District’s Anaheim Division for seven years, became the first woman to pass the State Certified Maintenance Training Program.