Evo's Show/People Report
The East Coast Art & Rubber Stamp Festival
June 10 & 11, 2000 - West Springfield, MA
Sponsored by Heirloom Productions
3900 NW Cherokee Lane
Newport OR 97365
Voice/Fax (541) 574-8000

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Heyyy, Folks...

Arrived home last night and what a delight,
Rain welcomed us in Ocala!
The lightning was frightful, the "wet" was delightful,
And Air Conditioned Home was Valhalla!

As most of you have heard, whatever could go wrong went wrong at the West Springfield Convention in relation to air conditioning and "the heat". It was one of those scenarios, of... "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

Well, I'm here to tell you the "play" in the long run, was wonderful! I'm in total amazement of the stamina of stampers, and yes, vendors, too. The show did go on, and I'm glad we were there.

Our flights to W. Springfield went beautifully, and our trust in Delta pilots has increased 10 fold. We did arrive safely in Cinncinatti and even caught our connecting flight to Hartford, even though we were 45 minutes late leaving Tampa. Trust me folks, if the plane loses it's auxilliary power backing out from the gate, the plane can still fly! On any airline other than Delta, Mr Evo and I would have probably said, "Er, um, I don't think so. We'll take the next flight, thank you." But we go wayyyyyy back with Delta from the 60's when Mr Evo was a facilities engineer with them (way back when the joke was that Eastern's whisper jets whispered, "Fly Delta"), so we trusted. Delta didn't let us down.

Our trust in priceline.com was also confirmed when Budget did indeed have the minivan waiting for us that we had reserved. From that point on, we were on our own... didn't have explicit directions to the Expo Center or the Ramada Limited where we were staying. (Evo forgot to bring all of that. (Evo wished she could have blamed that on Mr Evo but couldn't. :{/)

Sooooo, we hit I-91 and followed the signs. Then the signs stopped. I caught a glimpse of a sign up ahead and decided what better place to stop and ask directions???? The sign out front said:
Wine, Beer, Liquor
Gargoyles, Angels, Cupids

Mr Evo likes his toddy at night and I'm not adverse to one, either, and it had been a lonnng day. And with a sign that included Angels and Cupids, how could we resist???? Seemed like the right place to ask for directions to me!

Oh, wow. This store. Out of a magazine. Statues, and works of art, and stained glass, and crystal and decor from heaven. In between all this beauty were nestled the wines, beers and liquors. We did the right thing... made our "toddy bottle" purchase before asking, "Where are we? We're looking for the Ramada Limited and the Expo Center." Lo and behold... (notice these are angel words)... turns out our hotel was right behind this store... the very next street. The Expo Center entrance was a half a block away.

Now, to be fair... the hotel we stayed in is not a hotel from heaven. Nope... but... it looked like heaven to us! It does have a few flaws. Just a few. No elevator, and we were on the second floor. (They assured us an elevator would probably be installed the moment we left for Fla.) And the doors are secure! (So secure that the door from the lobby into the hallway leading to the rooms didn't have a knob or handle) And, the doors do NOT come off in your hands as you're holding them open (Evo still remembers Ft Washington, PA and holding an 8 foot tall plate glass door, literally! :{<>) And... if the mulberry tree is in fruit in the parking lot, be prepared for red bird-poo on your windshield. But... if you're lucky (and maybe whisper to those angels), you get to park under the beautiful flowering tree two spaces down, and you'll have orchid-type blooms on your car instead. (I will give a set of templates of your choice to the first person who can tell me the name of the orchid-type-flower tree. Would love to know. As a collector of plant names, I'm stymied on this one.)

Now to the show. Oh, my. The humidity was high, the heat was high... you hung in as long as you could. Some of you left earlier than planned, some of you who had planned to come back on Sunday bowed out. I can understand that. And some of you came back anyway!

Sooo, in spite of the heat and discomfort, I want to thank each and every one of you that made it to our booth toward the back of the room, gave your friendly "hi, evo!", never lost your "cool" and made the show successful for us. Not one crabby or impatient stamper was in our booth, and I would have understood if you had been. Some grumbling went on about the lack of air-conditioning, but your glow out-glowed the sweat-glow that we all were experiencing.

On the other side of the coin, I have to tell on Mr Evo. Somewhere around noon on Saturday, he went to lunch and was standing in a line that would turn out to be a 45 minute wait to get food. He tackled the beer waitress as she was walking by the line ... gave his Mr-Evo-pathetic-look and asked... "Would you bring me a beer?" Incredibly, she did! Took his money and even brought his change back! :{<> He finally got to eat lunch and came back to the booth.

The rest of this story is, that he also snuck away from the booth later. Hot and sweaty, he had another beer. No less than 3 people walked up to him and asked... "Does your wife know where you are?" Now, you have to realize, I didn't know any of this until later. No one ever ratted on Mr Evo! Not even stamper Iggy who was the first to ask him!!! :{<> And ... they still haven't ratted. Mr Evo confided his "indiscretion" later, amid much laughter and victory. Trust me... I've jotted down the names of my Mr-Evo-spies that I can't depend on. :{/

I want to thank all of our set-up, take-down, moral-support and booth helpers. We never, ever would have made it without you, and we want you to know that! Betsy and Donna and Debbie and Kathy and Marcia and Connie and Wendy and Cheryl and Nancy and I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. If I did, blame it on being back home and basking in the A/C. It revives the body but tends to "freeze" the brain.

Mr Evo and I renewed old friendships and made new ones at this show. We loved having dinner with the group Friday night at Bertucci's and the group Saturday night at Calamari's. And... Marcia Balonis, you went over and beyond your stamping call of duty to have stampers at your home Saturday night after dinner. Thank you for asking us! We almost opted out because of our tired bodies, but I'm glad we didn't. It was soooo good seeing everyone there, even though we had to cut our visit short.

Hey, folks... I have a bone to pick with a couple of you. One from NJ whose name I saw on a sales slip but didn't get to meet you! PJ... you know who you are! And, K****L from AOL, don't you ever, ever be too shy to march up to me or Mr Evo again. I wanted to meet you! I know there are more ... soooo sorry I missed meeting you.

Next time! OK???? And, next time... there will be air-conditioning. Trust me.

Ellen :}> Evo




Copyright © Ellen Gordon