quote:I haven't been in this scale long enough, and just became a TCA member, to know about a "closed" show. Really I'm kind of surprised, because every show that I've ever known about did everything they could to get as many people there as possible; especially newcomers to support the hobby for the future.
Frank53 wrote the following in a thread about hobby shops:
quote:Your Local Hobby Shop isn’t your personal babysitting service – either for you, or your children. Your local hobby shop should welcome your children and treat them with courtesy and enthusiasm. But when you are going to be in town for another purpose, dropping your children off at the hobby shop and leaving them there for three hours while you have a meeting, get a haircut or go to a ball game is abusing the privilege. If you’re from out of town and your wife is meeting her girlfriends in town for lunch, having her drop you off at the Hobby Shop for two hours is taking advantage.
Likewise, children are inquisitive and have an irrepressible need to touch everything they see. Letting your children run wild in the hobby shop to play “vroom, vroom” on the floor with expensive locomotives is costing your hobby shop money and no amount of “my little angel would never” makes it ok.
While the York show has plenty of dealers catering to the operator with new, and recently made merchandise, the meet also caters to collectors. Some very rare and expensive items show up there. This is one of the reasons people come from all over the country to attend the show. Some folks even come from overseas.
Our kids are certainly welcome at the meet. When the stars aligned, and the meet coincided with their school vacations, my kids attended. We assume that our children (and grandchildren) know how to conduct themselves at a meet or show. My experience as a table holder over the years tell me that is not always the case at a public show. To the general public, whether they be antiques or delicate scale models, our trains are all just toys.
