THE ‘POSSESSED’ QUESTIONNAIRE

John Wollstein

>> Age: 80

>> Residence: Waikiki

>> Occupation: Retired educator

>> What initially sparked your interest: Working with 16 countries to connect students using video telephones

>> Where did you find most of your pieces: Newspaper advertisements, thrift stores and antique shops; trips to the mainland also typically yield suitcases full of telephones.

>> Most fun you had acquiring a piece: “The video telephone: I walked into Radio Shack and said, ‘This would be incredible for kids.’ So I called up the manufacturer, and they gave me a half-dozen to start my program. I think they were $1,500 apiece back then. And then I got a federal grant for $500,000 to maintain native languages. So we had a chance to take Vietnamese students and hook them up with people in Vietnam, Thai kids with Thailand and so on.”

>> Biggest challenge in maintaining your collection: “It’s always been a challenge to find phones in Hawaii. If you go to the New England states, you’ll find a lot more. You have to be careful about the weather, since the salt air here can affect the electronics.”

>> Lessons from collecting: “The most impressive thing to me is that if someone blinked in 1900 and opened their eyes in 2000, the tremendous technological advancement that’s taken place is incredible.”

>> Rarest piece: “The 1910 Stromberg crank phone. That one you don’t see very often. It’s a classic.”

>> Most recent acquisition: Mickey Mouse telephones (nearly a dozen are on display in Wollstein’s museum in Waikiki)

>> Wish list: Telephone switchboard, traditional British phone booth