This member page owned and operated by ICCC member Monte Smith Hillsboro, Oregon, USA

Vintage Propane!

Hello fellow ICCC members. My name is Monte Smith and I live in Hillsboro, Oregon with my wife, daughter, two dogs, five cats and an unknown number of Coleman lanterns and stoves. I never considered myself a collector until one day several years ago I noticed that I had more "camping equipment" than all of my in-laws put together.

I was hunting with a couple of friends and as evening closed in we got into a discussion about which lantern put out the most light. Was it the always-trusty single mantle or the newer double mantle that I had picked up at a garage sale a month earlier? It was during this discussion that it came to light that I had enough lanterns at home to light up the whole campground.

And AGM too! Monte likes them all.

Good old Coleman

My friends only owned one lantern each and as I started to tell them the pros and cons of some of the lanterns that I had at home, they laughed and said, "What are you, some sort of collector or something?" Me? A collector? Well if I'm not a collector then why can't I walk passed a Coleman lantern without picking it up to check the date and trying to figure out if I already have one like it at home.

I don't remember when I bought my first lantern. It must have been thirty years ago and I doubt if it was new. I can only recall two lanterns that I have that are new. One my wife bought for me for Christmas (the 1992 sportsman 288) and a full size replica made of cedar by James Nichols (model 720). It's real hard to pick one as a favorite. It always starts by thinking of one, then my mind say "What about that little one with the dent in the side or that one with the mica lens or the reading lamp or the...) you know how it goes. I guess I am a "collector" and now I've found a club that has people who know that feeling of seeing a dusty old lump of metal and realize that it is "The Sunshine of the Night."

Military Mania.

Monte H. Smith
COLEMAN200@MSN.COM