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Thoughts about the FOHBC National Bottle Show

By Dick Bales

When I read that the FOHBC national show would be held in Collinsville, Illinois, I immediately decided that I had to attend. Sure, I live in Northern Illinois (near Chicago), and Collinsville is in Southern Illinois (near St. Louis), but that is "only" about a five hour drive!

My wife and I got there at about 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 19th. I wanted to be there when the show opened up for the early arrivals, but expressway traffic slowed to a crawl just outside the city limits. A SUV had the misfortune to run off the road and end up on its roof in a field, which resulted in a long, long, gapers’ block as drivers gawked at the rescue efforts.

We checked into the hotel and immediately walked over to the conference center. I wasn’t inside the place ten minutes before I spotted the glassmaster himself. I went over and we exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes. Promising to get together later, I continued looking at the various tables, many of which displayed shot glasses for sale. I bought a few glasses, but soon I spotted several other shot collectors, and eventually we all got together and sat down at a vacant table in the back of the room.

copyright Joe Swafford, 2007

We compared our purchases and talked and talked. Lakerdude regaled us all with a hilarious duck hunting tale that involved a gin bottle being knocked over into burning charcoal briquets, resulting in a fire that destroyed the duck blind. I think that he and I should collaborate on a book (but only if he sells me the mint Warsaw, Illinois glass he bought.) I already have the title: "Lakerdude: Reminiscences of an Arkansas Raconteur". But all right, fun is fun, but what about the glass? I bought five shots, but all were "text only" specimens. Although there was a fair number of glasses on the sales tables, I saw very few "picture" glasses. Naturally, Paul Van Vactor’s table was a notable exception, and because of my efforts alone, he left Collinsville two glasses lighter than when he arrived.

It appears that the show was supposed to be much better. Only about half the sales space was filled up. Why? A story (possibly conjecture) was going around that two area bottle clubs got mad at each other, which resulted in one club boycotting the show.

But nonetheless, it was a nice time; even my long-suffering non-collecting wife enjoyed herself. Not only did I get a chance to meet at least six other collectors, I also spent some time talking with the people on the other side of the sales tables. I bought a glass from a Memphis dealer, and when I remarked that Elvis died thirty years ago this week, he told me that he went to high school with "The King!" He then spent the next fifteen minutes telling my wife and me some great Elvis stories!

"Guns and glass" are my passions, and that meant that I had to talk to the guys at the glass target ball display. (I was told that one of the balls was worth $20,000!) We had a nice time talking about shot guns and trap shooting.

If I had to grade this show, my final glass grade would be: C+.

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