Saturday, 7/23/05
This morning I arose at 5:00 AM. I was scheduled to meet Dave, N8DRM and Phil, K9PRC at 6:15 about half way between Dayton and Cincinnati for breakfast. Our scheduled breakfast meeting went off without a hitch and we arrived at the hamfest site by about 7:15. This is somewhat unusual for our area, as most of the local hamfests occur on Sunday. We were a bit surprised when we overheard one of the officials of the hamfest comment that he would not be too surprised if some outdoor vendors started packing up by 10 AM. Well, he was right! By noon things had pretty well closed down and most of the vendors, inside and out had packed up or were in the process of packing up. This reminds me a lot of the hamfests in Texas that Hoss and the guys talk about that are done by noon. After some reflection, we wondered if it was because of the fact that it was on Saturday rather than Sunday. On Sundays we usually see more XYL's and children and the crowd usually sticks around a bit later. The last couple of Saturday hamfests we have attended had fewer XYL's and children attend than we are accustomed to seeing.
Some folks did comment that it was pretty warm, but as long as you were not in the direct sunlight, there was a bit of a breeze and it was quite nice!
As you will see in the pictures below, the I.O.O.K. was well represented although not very many were in uniform!
We had an enjoyable time. Even though sales were somewhat slow, we did pretty well with each of the three of us returning home with one less box of sales merchandise than we had brought! KBob certainly gets a lot of strange looks. What is really funny is when a potential customer tries to talk with KBob! He is our silent partner! We can't seem to get Flat KBob to assist with set up or tear down! And, as KBob now says, "I am everywhere!"
Best 73, Keith, WA8ZWJ
