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Where have all the bottles gone?

This article is about our trip to the Midwest Miniature Bottle Show in April, then onto Kentucky and
points Deep South. The title will be explained later.

It was somewhat of a last minute decision to go to St. Louis this year. We were going to do a different
holiday later in the year but Rosie badly injured her ankle and that holiday would have involved a lot of
walking. We therefore devised a trip starting at the show and having a trip that was more driving and
less walking.

I arrived in St. Louis on Wednesday evening (29 hours house to hotel!), in time to do some shopping
and get over the worst of the jetlag before other collectors started arriving Thursday Evening / Friday. I
say I as Rosie had something she could not get out of on the Friday and so did not travel (and arrive –
dateline crossed) until Saturday.

Unfortunately the show was fairly poorly
attended this year and a number of sellers who
had booked tables did not turn up. That is not to
say that it was not an enjoyable weekend. One
advantage of fewer people is that you do get to
finish (or even start) conversations. I caught up
with old friends and got to know better a number
of collectors who were previously only
acquaintances.

The Friday night was, as usual, a buffet dinner
and club auction. The dinner was a better spread
than most other years but the auction was a bit
of a flop with a lot of the bottles being bought
back by the seller. There were some good
bottles in the auction but, due to, at best, only
half the crowd of some years, prices were poor.

Saturday morning saw me helping,
dealer, Harry Goetz set up as usual. A
number of the tables, Harry’s three
included, felt a bit more empty than
usual and many of the offerings were
uninspiring. Having said that there
was some good stuff there and some
sellers did OK. I know that member Seva
and his mother (they run two tables
together each year) were satisfied with what
they sold. I bought 36 bottles this year but
24 were one set. I have done worse than
this on one other occasion but generally I
buy more (usually I am spoiled for choice
and have to ‘prioritise’ my purchases lest
‘she who must be obeyed’ objects!).
Saturday night saw the two of us dining with
four Spades Spaids and Harry at the same
restaurant as last year. This time we
managed to be in the same room (see
miNiZ105)!

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