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The First "Members Only" Nor-Cal Insulator Club Folsom Tailgater was held on 21 October, 2000 at the City Park in Folsom, California. It was a sparkling success! The skies were blue and a stiff breeze blew puffy balls of cotton across the fall sky. We had more walk-ins than we could keep track of and we watched our paid membership rise to 52!
It all started when we elected Dave Elliot and Larry Shumaker club co-presidents! They cooked up this wild idea, spent a big chunk-o-change on advertising and prepared to host a special kind of tailgater. Yes, Nor-Cal was gonna throw a "Bring Your Insulators, Get Them Appraised and Sell Them - If You Wanna" tailgater. So, Larry Shumaker, Bill Rohde and Dave Elliot, put their heads together, worked out the details and started making phone calls to drum up max' participation. I'm here to tell you, Max Participation is exactly what we got!
The usual cast of characters showed up during the morning and some even set up tables: Mike Doyle from Lemoore, CA got the directions inside out and set up all the way over on the other side of the park. Fortunately, Dave Elliot of Mountain View and Dave Brown of Tulare helped him open his eyes and get his act together (thanks guys!) Other club members in attendance included Larry and Alice Shumaker from Citrus Heights, Bart Magoffin of Eldorado Hills, Steve Marsh of Sacramento, Glen Adkins from Vacaville, Scott Prall also of Citrus Heights, Ian Macky of San Mateo and Claudia de Veaux from Los Altos as well as John and Norma Giudici from Santa Clara. We were also joined by Pat and Shirley Patocka of Penryn, Bill and Arlene Heitkotter from Fresno, Paul Greaves of Granite Bay, Bill Rohde who lives in Williams, Steve and Linda Viola of Mountain View, Renard Perucho of Concord, Greg and Judy Bickford from Budget-8, Hotel-California, as well as Bob & Arlene Jackson from Woodland. Greg and Judy are actually from Dunnigan, but their new home isn't finished yet so they have temporary digs. Hey Greg, how did you get the hotel maid to agree to dust all of those insulators?
Later in the morning a few more familiar faces showed up and joined the excitement. Larry Monroe of North Highlands brought a very clean Cal-Electric telegraph sounder and who to my wondering eyes should appear but none other than Jack 'Mad-Dog' Foote. Everyone welcomed the seldom seen second past president of the Nor-Cal club. Most of us still fondly remember the fabulous Western Regional show and heart-stopping E.C.& M. combined display that Jack and many others worked so hard to put together in the early '90s. Good to see you Jack!
We must have had fifty people bring in truck, trunk and trailer loads of insulators for us to pick through and drool over. There were baskets of insulators in the mini-van and buckets of insulators in the pick-up. There were box after box of carefully wrapped Hemingray-42s, B beehives, Armstrong's TSs and No Name number 20s. But in between all of that we were privileged to have an opportunity to appraise and buy a couple of swirly CD 130s, two or three CD 123s (one was dark green), a dark purple and a peacock CD 162 HGCo, two cobalt CD 162 Hemi's, pleated skirt tolls, a San Francisco wood, a yellow green CD 176, a purple Cal' cross-top, a blue Mickey Mouse, a couple of carnival Pyrex pieces and much, much more. The surprising thing was that None of the insulators I just mentioned was in less than VNM! It was frenzied! It was phat! It was a glass-a-rama! (Oh yeah, Bill Rohde bought a few nice hunks of mud too.) Just another day in the park for Nor-Cal. Great idea, Larry, and "Great Job" to everyone who helped make this one of the most successful and exciting tailgaters ever!
I tell you folks, if there is one thing that is more dependable than the high volume of walk-in buyers at a Nor-Cal show, it's the outstanding selection of vittles that seems to get bigger and better at every show. Our highly skilled and good lookin' culinary experts included Arlene Heitkotter, Alice Shumaker, Audrey Alberti and Linda Viola. Special thanks to Steve Marsh for the chicken, Shirley Patocka for -- yep, you guessed it -- the tray of World Famous Deviled Eggs and everyone else who prepared chow for the hungry hoard. The menu also included corned beef subs, tossed salad, a big vegetable and dip platter, huge cookies, coffee, soda-pop and a bunch of other home-cooked delectables. As good as the lunch was, very few of us had a chance to actually sit down and enjoy a good-eat because the walk-in traffic was non-stop until two or three in the afternoon.
Whew! I'm out'a breath from writin' this show report. But there's no rest for the weary as we look forward to the November 3 and 4 Tulare show and the Grand Daddy of 'Em All: The 23rd Annual '49er Historical Bottle Association's Show and Sale on December 2nd at the Auburn Fairgrounds. Some awesome stuff has 'walked into' that show in years past and this year promises to be just as exciting. Hope 2 C U there!