Back on the great highway.

I got an interesting email today from one of my favorite promoters, Rosemary:

The antique shows are back on.

You may think that I am jumping up and down at this great news. Actually I am fairly neutral. As tough as this year and a half has been for the country and world, I have managed to make do. Business has actually been good for me in this time of Covid 19. Mainly because I have been working my ass off. Is this really the time for me to switch tracks? Are we sure we can't hide out for a little bit longer? Do I have any choice? Not really.

Anyway, I am fairly sanguine about the matter. Shows are important to me on many levels. They present buying and selling opportunities and give us antique gypsies a sense of real live familial camaraderie that is lacking in any of the current virtual facsimiles. 

In a very real sense I am part of a larger team and it is one for all and all for one and without all of our participation the whole business model goes in the toilet and we instead try to make a go of it totally online. I am more inclined to go down with the ship and be the last man standing.

Some of my compatriots do perfectly fine without the shows, However the great majority of the time they are a positive for me and my business. And you get to see old clients, some of them who are very important to me on a personal level.

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Still I have some fears. I have sort of hid out this year as have many of us. Are people going to want to rush out, even in their vaccinated state and hang out in a big room with a bunch of other humans? I think it is going to be tougher than people think for us to break out of our solitary and rather fearful mode.

Although news from both the show in Roundtop, Texas and the Tucson Gem Show yesterday were long lines and happy dealers.

It will be an endurance test. I am knee deep in my new auction, which should fire late May, early June. Pretty exhausted already, frankly. It is getting harder and harder to do back to back shows, like Del Mar and San Mateo. Harder to drive, hotels, gas and food more expensive out on the great highway. I get tired. Can my body still manage to do this and if so, for how long?

And I am doing at least one show in New Mexico in August and maybe three. Although the state is enforcing some fairly stringent occupancy restrictions there, according to my promoter Terry S.

Anyhow, I have a ton of great merchandise and it should all be good, I will give it a go. I hesitate to ask what the worst thing is that can happen, you never really want an answer to that question, but I know that at times, the best thing can happen too.

I hope that I am ready for all this.