Many folks mentoned the Tool Lady. With a heavy heart I have to relate the sad news of the Tool Lady passing away. Barbara Billings was a wonderful person, and will be dearly missed by all. Barb was the very first person to sign up for show number 1 in November 1982. She was also a very good friend.
Russ Colegrove who had been a dealer for the first eighteen years of our show recently passed away as did David Sweetland. Mrs. Sweetland is here this weekend offering many of David wonderful books. I’m sure condolences if you attend the show tomorrow would be greatly appreciated.
Perhaps this could be poor timing, but there were also many comments about the show. Attendence today was 2600+/- down from 3300 last fall. Tables were 677, down from 775 last year. Could be the increased costs, could be the beautiful summer weather combined with folks opting to go on a three day holiday, could be the current state of affairs and associated fear. We do not know, and we refuse to place the blame on anything.
Several dealers had last minute medical emergencies. As we all become older, these problems will most likely increase in frequency. How about some of you younger folks sign on as vendors.
We are trying to negociate a better fall date for next year. We can not control our increased costs other than pass it on, or close down. After 27 years, this is not an option. We put off raisng the fees for over a year and we had announced increases right after our winter show this year. We still do not charge dealers for power, nor do we charge for permium wall space. We will be hoping to streamline our coupon program, as we had mixed reviews. This was implemeted to to somewhat hopefully take the sting from the increased gate fee.
Many folks refer to this show as the Howard Zane show. This is not so. Ken young and myself are only the appointed directors…Ken for his computer skills, and me as I’m known as a serious scale modeler. The show is sponsored by the Ellicott City Sca