FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Gail]

This painting was done by Fred Wilda and was presented to the Oboddas as a gift. Each year the show guest exhibitor gets to have their mineral on the show poster, the tee shirt and are given the painting reproduction ( Limited edition ) custom framed as a gift. This piece was one that belonged to George Kunz and was featured in Paris in the late 19th century. The book has a lovely painting of the piece and is part of the display and provenance. Herb has a great story about the piece, involving a famous NY dealer who almost bought it from Herb, but Herb had discovered the history of the piece and held on to it.
Perhaps something to crow about?

[Gail]

Part 2.
Friday.

I had slept a bit fitfully, I was hoping my 44 slides on the Power Point were enough to show for the Women's perspective of mineral collecting talk I was giving at 4 p.m. today.
I always get nervous before a talk, although once I start I am fine.

I knew Jim was flying in later, after my talk, and was glad to know he was arriving. My in laws were driving down and going to attend the show and spend some of the weekend with us. They are in their 80's but sharp and in very good health, so they drove the 3 1/2 hours from N. Syracuse to visit.

I had breakfast with the Oboddas before heading over to the show and entered to a whole new world from the day before. The show was in full swing and Rose Zinn told me, at the end of the day, that 3400 people had paid to enter. On a friday, that was NOT bad!

My in laws arrived and we had a chance to do introductions to many friends. I was to help Nancy Millard with my computer for her PP show on Quartz. At 2 we head up to the lecture room and got her memory stick ready for a friend of hers to run on my laptop.
Well, we had problems...the show was on my laptop, but the cable refused to put it on the projector! Nancy was a trooper, she managed to talk through most of the first half before we got the glitch resolved. I learned quite a bit, as did my in-laws!

So, when her show ended, I had an hour to make sure my glitches were worked out.
Tracy and Sue came to visit me and it was one of the highlights of the show! They couldn't hang around for the presentation, but we got a few minutes to talk about things and we had a hug just before they left. I had slipped a photo of Tracy into the presentation I was giving, had wished she could have heard the kudos I gave her, ah well.
Brooks Britt and his wife came to run my PP and we got it settled right before the crowds came in. As you can imagine, I was a bit of a nervous nelly when I figured that we were having problems, but I also know I can TALK with the best of them!
Talking has never been my weakness.

I saw some familiar faces coming in to see my perspective talk. Stuart Wilensky, Irv Brown, Donna Leicht, Rose Zinn and all the ladies on their staff, Dan and Diana Weinrich, Dave Wilber, Mike and Diana Hopkins, John Veevart and many others I have met along the way.

I started my talk on time, had a great time being enthusiastic and humourous, got some good points across and had a nice applause at the end. Many folks hung around to chat with me and exchange contact information. I even got to sign a pamphlet, what a hoot.

My in-laws were just delighted and we were happy to have that finished up so I could relax and enjoy the show weekend. Jim arrived in time, by taxi, and we head off to dinner with John Veevart, Marty and Rose, the Oboddas, and Dave Bunk.

I simply collapsed into bed that night, feeling happy and pleased that the day had gone well and Jim and I had reconnected. He is my best friend as well as husband and we miss each other when apart.

Saturday morning, breakfast with my In Laws. We had a nice chance to catch up on family news and then we went to the show. I never had a chance to shop on Friday, but we were in shopping mode now. This is the fun part, the visiting and chatting with mineral friends, the excitement when someone buys a great specimen and shares a view with you, the digging through flats to find treasures and the chance to meet folks you only know on line. We walked around and introduced ourselves to people like John Betts, whom I have emailed for years but never met in person.

Went to visit Kevin Brown, who works for Arkenstone...he is the coordinator for our MAD group. He was working the show with James, the base maker. Kevin is always good about having a bit of chocolate to share!
Rob Lavinsky came over and introduced us t the fellow that bought Keith Proctor's collection. I had met him the day before and we got a chance to visit. Nice enough fellow!

We hooked up with Jeff Fast, Scott Werschky, Kevin Dixon, the Walkers, as we methodically roamed the aisles. We had a great time buying rarities and nice showy specimens from the Fenders, John and Maryanne, from our MAD group and the Dallas area. How funny we have to travel far, buy and haul back minerals that we might have bought locally?! Such is life.

Herb and Moni gave Jim, my In Laws and me a first class 6 1/2 hour tour of all their display cases. It was a blow by blow talk about each and every item shown. This was so precious and a rare chance to hear it all. They are wonderful people!

We had a nice dinner at the Sheraton, with friends, on Saturday night. Just trying to figure out how much running, bicycling I will need to do to work off the many delicious dinners I had?

Sunday.

Breakfast with my in laws and then we said goodbye to them. The concrete floors are tough on everyone, but more so on my poor mother in law!
We saw them off and head right to the show.

We had trips to the parking lot to see what treasures friends had bought while at the show, we walked all the aisles to pay our respects to friends we hadn't had a chance to visit yet, and we called Carl Davis of the Harvard Museum to set up a visit on Monday. I had a fun time talking bicycling as well as minerals with Ross Lilly.
It was sad to see the show wind down, and my last image was of Jim sitting with flats all around him as though they were boxes of chcolates and he had found the one with the best filling! We found a great source for fabulous T/N's and purchased about 100 or so? I can't quite recall as we are having them shipped. I had a great time digging in the flats too.

We said our goodbyes, hugged Marty and Rose and head to Cambridge to a B & B just down from the Museum. Parking is a nightmare at Harvard, so we just were pleased the establishment had a parking area.
Found a great Chinese restaurant and I even had a Zombie drink for old times sake. I used to hang out near Harvard as a young hippie chick. Peace man!

Monday
Walked over, after having a lovely continental breakfast at the B and B, to Harvard and the Museum. Made it there a couple of minutes early so Jim and I got to sit and talk about some of my old memories of Boston. ( We moved there from Canada while I was quite young. )
Carl had told us to let the desk know when we arrived, so he came to greet us. We had a fabulous visit with him, spending a great portion of the day where I took over 600 photos when all was said and done, and Jim and I got to see drawers full of amazing specimens! Carl is a very easy going and intelligent man and we had a wonderful time!
He had duties, so we had time to explore and be amazed at the variety of minerals we had not heard of before, the beauty of the larger pieces lining the walls, and the provenance of many pieces. It was a treat!

We forgot to mention that it was on and off again rain the whole visit to Massachusetts and we had to drive from Cambridge back to Hartford to fly out. I will save that story for later, I have to go back to school shopping with my daughter and grandsons now.
I will also post photos of the weekend at the show and the Harvard visit when I return.
Hope you enjoy my report so far, it is definately given with a woman's twist!
Best regards, Gail

[Gail]

Oh, before I go, Tracy had wondered at my use of the word Grassroots in a description of this show. I mean it, not as a NEW show, but that it isn't full of the glitz and glamour that many shows have...which was a bit refreshing for a change.
This is an old venue and one that is steeped in history and marketplace feel, more basic in approach to selling without all the frills.
Just to clarify.

[Tracy]

We were sorry we couldn't stay too. The kudos are much appreciated...

Tracy

[Brooks]

Gail,

Excellent report. I also wrote a report on the Mindat Blog. The only real drawback I saw to the building is it needed some work in high traffic areas, specifically the bathrooms. they were deplorable! I also wish the room they set aside for the lectures was larger and more accessible for anyone with a physical handicap. Those stairs were very tricky, especially climbing down. I was concerned that someone was going to take a spill before the weekend was over. That concrete floor was tough wasn't it? I wore my running shoes so I would have a little extra cushioning under my feet. I thought the mix of dealers was excellent. Back in Virginia we have absolutely no shows with any quality mineral dealers. Most shows cater to the public and have plenty of jewelry and beads, yuck! I would love to come back to this show; maybe the ten hour drive from Virginia will soon be a distant memory ;)

[Jordi Fabre]

Great article Gail, very pleasant to read it.

Your photos of Harvard's collection looks extremely promising, please publish here the 600! ;-)

Jordi

[Gail]

Some people from the ECGM show.

The photo of Scott is a miracle, he totalled the VW bug rental car he had on the Sunday before the show and he came out relatively unscathed other than bruises and some abrasions. He was still sore as heck though!

[Gail]

More people sightings...

[Gail]

One of our newest additions. An Afghan Tourmaline with that vibrant "Bubble Gum" colour. We were talking to the display folks at Sunnywood about making a base with lighting undernearth to show off the colour, as well as lighting from behind and above so we could pick and choose how we wished to display it.

This piece is just incredible and can't wait till we get it back to enjoy it.

[Gail]

This is a family that I saw, and heard, leaving the show. It warms my heart to see everyone involved. I heard the children, all excited, talk about what they had seen at the show and I figured they would be the future of this wonderful business/hobby.

[Gail]

some show photos..

[Gail]

The open doors after the last of the public leaves as tear down begins. I find it very sad to the this wonderful event close till next year. I really had a good time and can't thank everyone enough for making it happen.

[Gail]

End report:

We said our goodbyes and hugged many friends before walking out the door to head to Cambridge to our Bed and Breakfast. The fact that we will see many of these folks at the Denver show made the goodbyes much easier.

I wish to commend Marty and Rose Zinn for their fabulous work on putting these great shows together, this was a definate return for us.

We are the guest exhibitors next year, having to fill those 53 cabinets does not scare us off at all, quite the contrary...we are excited about the fun and educational cases we are considering daily. We had a case shipped back so we could set up and photo our exhibits, check out the lighting and its effects on our minerals and other items.

We hopped in our car and drove straight to Boston down the MassPike. I had a flutter of sentimental feelings upon seeing the Charles River, as a child I often would play along the banks with my three brothers as my Dad washed the car and my Mom would set up a picnic. I was always climbing the highest trees to challenge my brother's dares.

We found our B & B and climbed to the third floor to our very quaint room. It was late, so we walked around to find a place to eat, finding a lovely chinese restaurant where we had a great meal and settled into the tired yet "warm glow" time and talked about our observations at the show.

We tried to watch the Olympics when back in our room, but I don't recall a thing as I was fast asleep the moment my head hit the pillows.
We were off to see the Harvard Museum the next morning and were going to eat early, head over for the opening time. You can see the Harvard Museum report I have on another thread:
https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?t=300
(link normalized by Jordi)

I can tell you that if you go to the ECGM show, pamper yourself with some very comfortable shoes, sit down once in a while to recharge, then walk each aisle and find your treasures. And go see the guest lecturers!

Best regards, over and out..... Gail Spann

[chris]

Still thanks for your report Gail.

Looking forward Denver's report now ;-)

[robynahawk]

Gail - that was a wonderful write up - since it is too far for us to travel for a show, it was fun seeing it thru your eyes. It gives a newbie like me the opportunity to see a show and get to know the dealers.

I write a blog from the Tucson Show every year (you are actually on the current post) so I know what it is like to sit down and recall names and events - really excellent!

Robyn Hawk
tucsongemshow dot blogspot dot com