On Friday August 17, I
double-checked the show calendar, my watch calendar, the calendar hanging on the
wall and my computer clock, and then loaded the car and headed northwest.
Collinsville was an eight- or nine-hour drive away, but I left in plenty of time
to allow mandatory stops at every sign that read "Antique Mall" along the
Interstate.
The
route took me through Tennessee, past the fabled Jack Daniel and George Dickel
distilleries, and then clear across Kentucky's legendary glasslands. I was
hoping I had sufficient funds to pay for all the shots that I was bound to find
along the way.
It seems that Paul Van Vactor must have trawled this area throroughly ahead of me, because in all the 1,100+ miles and 25+ stops made during the journey there and back, I saw only a badly worn Hayner ($25), an unlisted whiskey dose glass with a huge crack running from rim to base ($12), and a not-so-bad condition etched Michelson & Bros. from Cincinnati ($22.50). I bought the latter and was so thirsty for glass in the parched deserts of TN and KY that I seriously considered buying the cracked dose! Sanity prevailed, fortunately.
I pulled into Collinsville
around 7 pm, just in time to hook up with Arky Joe (a.k.a. lakerdude33),
whom I had previously arranged to meet for dinner. By the time I had checked
into my hotel and headed on over to the nearby Holiday Inn (the host hotel), Joe
was sitting in the bar with some of our collecting brethren from the internet.
The best part about attending shows is that one finally gets to meet faceless
names that one regularly dukes it out with over prime glass on eBay.
Apparently some of the competition is in hiding from irate wives (husbands?),
bounty hunters, or is enlisted in the Federal Witness Program because I was asked not show photos, mention names, or repeat comments on the site, so I'll
just have to say that "I had a very pleasant evening and was grateful that no punches
were thrown my way".
There was one note of disquiet: there was mention of the fact that the show room was only half filled with sales tables at present. Since dealer set-up was still many hours away, this was not too great a concern because there was still plenty of time to bring in the remainder: this was St Louis, after all, a location that guaranteed a packed sales hall.
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