Message from the President September 2019

Too Darn Hot!

There is a musical number in Kiss Me, Kate by Cole Porter when (in the movie) Ann Miller is playing around during the intermission of their performance of The Taming of the Shrew and she dances around (as Ann Miller tended to do), blowing off excited steam and having a much needed break. The lyrics lament that when things get really hot, no one is in the mood for romancing. In the Midwest during high summer, the same could be said about carnival glass collecting, and yet it doesn’t seem to hold true for us (or for the ICGA convention).

In the past year, since we announced this year’s convention being held in Des Moines, various people have come forward to say that Iowa isn’t a prime location for our convention. And yet, the convention had a great turn out, many smiles, some fun times and a lot of glass to share. If you missed this year’s ICGA convention, you missed a laid-back fantastic carnival glass time. All the speakers did an excellent job with their presentations, the food events were very well attended, and Jim and Jan Seeck provided us with a very fun Thursday night auction, as well as our Saturday auction. I wish Lee Markley would have been there with us physically (I am sure he was with us in spirit), because it was a convention he would have thoroughly enjoyed.

Next year, our convention moves back to Indiana, and the Board has once again chosen to have our convention in a new location that is sure to not only bring excitement and fun, but also some amazing food. Our convention will be held July 15-18, 2020, at the Essenhaus Inn and Conference Center in Middlebury, Indiana. This is part of the Das Dutchman Essenhaus complex with fantastic food, unique shops, wholesome entertainment and more. Middlebury is ten minutes from Shipshewana, Indiana (where we had our convention in recent years) and thirty-give minutes east of the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. It will prove to be an amazing location for our convention.

In addition to a fantastic program (more on that in the next issue), it will feature the carnival glass auction of the Fred Roque collection. You may remember Fred buying up a literal ton of incredible carnival glass the past decade or so, and our auction will bring many of those pieces to the auction block for you to have the opportunity to purchase. I am very excited for the opportunity because Fred bought many beloved pieces that had my eye and my heart.

Reservations for the convention should be open by the time you read this (check the convention page on our website at www.internationalcarnivalglass.com) for more information. Each reservation comes with free breakfast buffet (that is waaaay better than most breakfast buffets you have experienced) and we have several more food events planned.

So back to Kiss Me Kate. One thing I am sure of about July next year is that it is going to be hot. The temperatures in Indiana during that time are also near the century mark. But with the glass and people that will be in Middlebury, it will be hot for many more reasons. Perhaps if you are there with us, you will also gind yourself swept up in the heat of the moment and have a blazing good time. I know I will!

See you there!

Brian