Fringe Benefits: Friends, Food, Fun

It's no secret that antique dealers love to eat. At Allegan, our monthly neighborhood potluck is an excellent place to indulge in this particular pastime. The morning starts with a bottomless cup of coffee, brewed by our show neighbor Vanna, and actually delivered to our booth at regular intervals by her husband Jack. He even brings the cream and sugar. I think all shows should adopt this practice.


As if the beverage delivery service wasn't enough, several of our excellent neighborhood bakers provide cakes to go with all that coffee. And this is just the preview. By 11, there are two 8-foot tables covered with casseroles, crockpots, salads, sides and desserts. All that fresh air certainly works up an appetite!

Our monthly gathering has the atmosphere of an old-fashioned church social -- everyone talking and laughing, the ladies exchanging recipes and the gentlemen lining up for seconds. And true to carry-in tradition, no one goes away hungry, but you don't want to dilly-dally. But noon, the serving dishes are just about empty.

Although no rain was forecast, we spent the first pre-show hour drying things off, due to an overnight thunderstorm. Vanna quipped that in addition to coffee, she was also going to provide weather-forecasting services: "partly sunny with a chance of showers" was going to be her permanent response. Despite good numbers during early buy on Saturday, Sunday started out slowly. However, when it was all done, we came within $40 of our sales goal. Cubbies of all sorts were great sellers, as were original paint items and ephemera. We could have sold more industrial, had we had it. And we're starting to think about fall...

We wanted to thank our excellent friend Lynda for venturing over from Chicago, complete with cakes -- your presence always make everything more fun! And our new friends Dan and CJ for dinner Saturday night -- a totally unexpected "fringe benefit." We are most grateful. xo