I miss being there.
My enjoyment and part of what I miss of the TCA Meets @York included starting each day quite early. I enjoyed the quiet times I spent dozing and waiting at sunrise for everybody else to arrive, each morning, having driven from my Holiday Inn Express room in Lancaster while it was still dark, to avoid any traffic and to get myself into this parking slot close to the big roll-up door of the Orange Hall. I often needed quick access to the car during the show.
This shot was taken from inside my vehicle, looking out the driver's window, left, toward one of the Orange Hall's parking lots (Brown Hall on the right).........
This was the view through the right side of my vehicle, facing east....
I really miss the wonderful customers, for whom I have always been grateful, who would almost wipe me out of displayed inventory before 20 minutes had passed after our hand-over-the-heart singing of the National Anthem opening. It was a thrill needing to go to the car, later, to acquire the inventory of Insta-Ramas I had kept in reserve.
And of course, having friends such as Allan Miller, Jim Elster, Roy Baker, and Eliot (Scrapiron Scher) come by my little booth to make a pleasant and cheerful fuss over my latest work was the perfect start for each Meet. That really mattered a whole lot to me, their friendly and encouraging voices, and of course , the developing friendships themselves, which meant and mean so much to me.
And finally, speaking just as a vendor and modeler, having a few big customers, such as Richard Kughn and a couple others, swoop into the booth, late on a Friday, or early on Saturday, wave a hand over all that I had remaining in my booth, and say, "I'll take it all," was fantastic! Such good fortune used to make me wonder if I would still have to remain at my empty booth if customers had bought everything before Friday finished or Saturday arrived. The wondering was fun in itself , man-o-man!
Yes, I miss the excitement of it all, every person who greeted me at my booth and looked around, and which, at times, meant having the work of this simple English teacher's hands accepted and taken home to layouts and included in the happiness there.
Thank you, TCA, Thank You, Debbie Geiser, who was always patient with my many questions, and Thank you, customers, who, after every Meet, left me with no inventory to take home. That was a feeling of accomplishment I cannot describe to you. I miss all of you. It was great, great fun.
FrankM, Layout Refinements, and Moon Township, USA
