V O L U M E 3 2 I S S U E 1 P A G E 7
Keeping Pace— Jay Martin
Well, here we are again. The high today reached a“ toasty” zero degrees, welcome to January on the frozen tundra. Makes me question my sanity of living here. Seems like a good day to stay inside and see where my mind leads me on this typewriter. If you missed the Batch Christmas party, you certainly missed a good time. Plenty of beer, food, laughs and beer fellowship. The money that the Hamm’ s raffle generated has put the Border Batch in an enviable position and has assured the long term financial health of this club. Special thanks to Mr. Miner for the Hamm’ s sign. And really, I’ d like to just say thanks to all the members for participating and supporting this chapter and the common bond that gets us together throughout the year.
Just recently there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about the BCCA and collecting in general. A couple of the things that I found to be interesting was that, membership now, is at 3,570 from a peak of 11,954 in 1978. And, of the 3,570 current members, only 19 are under the age of 30. What does this tell you? It tells me, that the long term health of the BCCA is not a rosy picture. Of course the vision is to get more young people interested in collecting and join the BCCA. Have you ever heard the phrase,“ You can lead a horse to water but, you can’ t make him drink”. My point is, you can not get anybody interested in something, that they are not interested in. You need to be interested in collecting something in the first place, then you search out if there is anyone else like you.
I know that I have beat this horse in past articles but, what the heck, I’ ll beat it again. For me, I questioned even paying my BCCA dues this year and as of this writing, I still have not renewed. Dues are 45 bucks for a family membership and it just seems like a lot of cash, just to get a magazine 6 times a year. I find myself attending the local shows much more and would rather put my cash into a local chapter that I can frequent their shows, rather then driving across the country for a national show. I also find myself not overly interested in collecting a whole lot anymore. If I pick up something at a show, that is fine but I really don’ t care if I get something or not. For me, the hobby has become more a beer fellowship kind of thing. Anyway, this of course is only how I see it.
Since I got that off my chest, I’ m looking for Schells Christmas ornaments from 1995 and 1998. If anyone has extra of these years, let me know. I’ m sure we can make a deal. Speaking of this, Teri and I went looking for ornament hangers. We looked most everywhere we could think of, to no avail. Finally went online to Bronners Christmas store in Frankenmuth, MI. This is the largest Christmas store in the world,( or so they say, whoever“ they” are) and we can pretty much testify to that. We stopped there a few years back on our way to Canvention in Detroit. Actually got lost in the store, it is huge. Well, they had the ornament hangers I was looking for and at 2 bucks a piece it seemed cheap. Now my Schells ornaments are looking pretty in our curio cabinet.
Here is the quote of the day. So said Stubie, who liked to drink beer.“ To me it is perfectly clear, the more suds you drink, the better you think.” And then he fell on his ear. Jay Martin
• Sat, Feb 20, 2010 Hamm’ s Show, Medina, MN hammsclub @ hammsclub. com
• Sat, Mar 20, 2010 @ 1:00 p. m. Border Batch Chapter Meeting, Steve Miner Residence,, Winnebago, MN
• 3 Day Beer & Breweriana Trade Show Weekend. Friday & Saturday in Sioux Falls, SD and Saturday Night & Sunday in New Ulm, MN brought to you by the Dakota Chapter & Schell’ s Border Batch
• Fri & Sat, Apr 16 & 17, 2010, Dakota Chapter, Dakota Chapter Show, Sioux Falls, SD Bob Post stickshack @ earthlink. net
• Sun, Apr, 18, 2010 @ 10:00 a. m. Schell’ s Border Batch,“ A Day at August Schell”, A. Schell Brewing Co., New Ulm, MN Tom Terwilliger # 28855, 515-295-7819