Sights from Collinsville . . .

We are in Collinsville, Illinois this weekend – essentially in the shadow of the Gateway Arch.  And surprise – it’s hot and muggy here!

Any story involving the Gateway Center begins with one thought among the vendors – “Do you have signal?”  This place is built like a bunker and cell phone signal does not come inside.  I tell my family before I leave that they likely will not be able to reach me all weekend during business hours.  This weekend, I was close enough to the back garage door that a bit of signal leaked through – but not enough to boot the credit card machine at the beginning of the day.  I had to go outside for that – afterward, everything was fine.  But poor Sam from Stamp on It wore out a path between his booth and the back door all day long on Saturday, carrying his credit card machine searching for a signal.

 

This is a blast from my past – Kristi Van Doren and I met about ten years ago at the go-kart track across the street from the Gateway Center.  Several of the vendors went over to have some fun after Saturday in Collinsville.  Kristi now coordinates the Gel Press Design Team and spent the weekend at our demo table – but we both decided that our backs could not handle a return to the go-kart track.

Here’s another blast from the past – Deb and Duane Steines were “Endless Designs” on the show circuit for years.  They live in Louisville now and came over to visit – it is always nice to see good friends.  Deb and Duane were the first to use the gridwall that we have used in our booth for many years – I walked into their booth to see their new layout and that was the end of our “tabletop” booth.

There was a “classroom” area set up in the corner near our booth with rows of chairs – Julie Creek from Creekbank Creations preferred to have everyone gather around the table – and when they finished, everyone put their chairs back in the rows where they found them.

We start ‘em young at shows – and apparently there is something about this family that attracts me, because his mom said I took a pic of another of her kids a few years ago and put it on the blog.

Don’t get many of these at shows – this is a 1935 Silver Certificate, from back in the days when our money was actually worth something tangible.

And the “campaign” goes national – I put this up in the booth next to my cash register and the customers had a lot of fun with it.  One suggested that “Zoe for President” needed its own Facebook page, so that’s what I did last night.  Join in the movement and “like” the brand new Zoe for President Facebook Page – we’ll have some fun with this over the next few months . . .