Pulling It All Together in St. Louis and Beyond
By Brian Pitman, June 2004
Stop reading this article right now, put down The Pump, and call this number to make your hotel reservations: (314) 291-6700. Make sure to tell them you are with the International Carnival Glass Association (our group code is ICG) so that you get our $95 room rate. They are expecting your call, so set this newsletter down and make the call. I will wait for you.
Did you get it done? Good. Now let’s talk about what you are going to expect at our annual convention in July. First of all, let’s talk about some new things.
Every morning at 8:00 a.m. we are going to have breakfast with someone who will show us four or five of their pieces, and share their stories with us. Yes, I know its early, but I am an early bird, and if you want to learn about carnival glass and the people who collect it, you have to start early and go all day. We were able to get coupons from the hotel to save you $2 on each person’s breakfast buffet, so you get to save a little bit of money while enjoying the beautiful sunny mornings the hotel has to offer.
Okay, we are going to fulfill our namesake this year with our room display, which we are also turning into a seminar this year. International Carnival Glass will fill this voluminous room, and Janet Knechtel, who has done an amazing job putting this together from her homes in Canada and Florida, will educate us on Friday by providing the seminar on this glass. It’s amazing how many collectors of international glass there are out there, and so this seminar will maybe bring this aspect of our hobby into the open a bit and open up the beauty of glass from India, Scandinavia, Australia, Czechoslovakia, and other countries afar.
Reg Dunham will give us our other educational seminar, mixing the past, present, and future of carnival glass collecting, an entirely new presentation from our past president who hasn’t given a seminar for us in quite a while. Reg and Linda are incredible teachers, so you will really enjoy the surprises they have for us.
Another new feature this year, which I think sounds very cool, is our Paint Your Own Whimsey feature. At the convention, you will have the opportunity to purchase a 2004 ICGA Souvenir Piece (the cobalt blue Frolicking Bears cuspidor), and we will provide you with special paints that adhere to glass permanently without baking the piece (although you can put it in an oven later and the paint will hold better). After a few practice runs on some drawings we provide, you will be able to decorate your souvenir into your very own whimsey! Why should all the artists at Fenton have all the fun? This way you will always have a one-of-a-kind special piece to pass down through your family for years and years to come (think how cool that is).
Our banquet this year will also be different. In the past few years we have had Australian Glass, the Ultimate Piece, the kin of Mary Eastwood, and others. This year though, we are going to look back and see where we have been as an Association and the great history behind us. As I said a few issues back, the future is in the past, and in St. Louis we are going to stop and remember the past, the people in the past, and the people that have brought us to where we are today. Sound intriguing?
Finally, we will have a great Jim Seeck auction of the collection of the Rottschaefers. We will have rooms with a lot of glass for sale. We will have the great people to talk with (like Harold George Cox), we will have ice cream, and we will have each other.
So, did you make that call, really? You should, and you should do it now.
Speaking of things you should do now, you should also renew your dues, because it is time to do so. Our Association is entering a time of growth, and the growth can only occur with your help. Our dues are incredibly cheap in this day and age, and the benefits (just The Pump alone with its color insert) are worth far more than a piece of paper with Andrew Jackson on it. Take care of those dues today, and we will be providing you with new ways to do it in the near future.
Meet me in St. Louis and we will have tons of fun.
Brian Pitman