[TheForge] Next ABANA conference?

[Ralph Sproul]

        Hey Steve,  Sounds like your country fairs are a bit more liberal
than the ones around here.  We get truck pulls and demo derbies for
excitement.  :-(

        Finished my second day back to work today, after returning from the
conference in Kentucky.  I learned a lot, bought lots of tools and a new
double horned anvil, as well as meeting and working with some great folks
from different parts of the country.
        The hard work on set up and take down was all taken in stride as the
crew was so talented doing this - that it was just a matter of puting our
time in to get the job done.  We made it a good time, and lots of laughs and
good memories were taken home.
        Meeting folks like Pat McCarty, Wayne Coe, Dave Bernard, Jim Piggot,
Kate Dineen, and Tracey MacCarty made it really fun to deal with the site
crews and I had never dealt with many of the folks from Illinois and Indiana
prior to the event, but they'd come to pitch in with set up and tear down.
I came out of this knowing I could work with any of them any time.  What a
great bunch of folks.
        Dave Koenig did one hell of a job in planning this event, and it
went well.

        All the demoes I saw were excellent, but the two English fellows
(Peter Parkinson, and Terry Clark) were well worth the price of admission.
Terry kept us all jumping with some good US/BRIT competition and constant
poking and proding.  We kept asking him if ABANA had got his interpretur
yet..........and "Piss off mate".......was all we could get for a reply!
:-)    He's one talented fellow, and it was great to get to talk with him a
couple of evenings after the work was done.
        The other older fellow Michael who came with them really had some
great stories about BABA - and the auction(that wasn't doing so well) where
he raffled off all his clothes (and the girls in the audience really turned
that auctions outcome around)..........he really kept us laughing in good
shape.  He said he'd sent out a chap to get some knickers and demanded that
they be red with a white stripe on them.  When the gals had all bought up
his clothes at the auction and he turned to bend over and show them the red
knickers with a white stripe on them (which in England means "No Entry")
The crowd lost it and it has been a treasured moment in BABA history.
        That was just one of the samplings of stories that went on, and I
wouldn't have missed it.  His comment was "I had to practice some artistic
liscense with those knickers you know!" - "I couldn't just let them go as
plain now could I?"  He then went on to say "all the blokes in the audience
were much more pleasant about how much money their girls had spent on his
clothing after that no entry joke at the end !"  Running into characters
like him and listening to all the stories was just part of the smatering of
fun and times enjoyed.  Sorry you couldn't make it - it was a good time.

        And if you ever see those guys from the Upper Mid West........ask
them....."who the hell is Bob?".  You'll get another good laugh that you
missed by not going.

        I'm planning on coming out to the next conference and maybe I'll
finally get to meet you on your home turf and meet some of the folks out
that way.  I'm looking forward to it already.

Ralph

----- Original Message -----
From: "Howell Steve" <steve.howell at siemens.com>
To: "'Sponsored by ABANA'" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 1:16 PM
Subject: RE: [TheForge] Next ABANA conference?


> Ries- Have you got any contact names for the Sand Point station?
> I heard they were looking at getting some metal Fartists in there and
would
> love an 80' ceiling?
>
> Hope everyone had fun at Richmond. I was chasing topless girls at the
Oregon
> country fair. Yeehaa!! Schwing~!
>
> Steve
>
>  >>>>
>
>
> Ries -- I can confirm your information -- at least to quote Jerry
Kagele --
> he said that the site would be in the old hangars.  Lots of square feet
and
> out of the rain.  Only way to keep things dry in Seattle is to have them
in
> doors -- grin.  Should be a lot cooler that Richmond, KY was.  I heard
about
> the blimp hangars from Jerry at Richmond -- he didn't have much to say
about
> the rain.
>
> Dave Smucker
>
>
> > The next ABANA conference is definitely in Seattle in 2006- looks like
> > something like the 5th of July.
> > The dorms and cafeteria will be at the University of Washington, and it
> > is looking like demos and most of the show will be at the old Sand
> > Point Naval Air Station- about 2 miles from campus- its a really pretty
> > park now, right on lake washington, with great old hangars and lots of
> > buildings as well as plenty of open space.
> > Details are still being worked out, so exact locations are subject to
> > change. But this is relatively accurate rumor, at this point.
> > So start saving your money for those 4 dollar cups of coffee.
> >
> >
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