Week 7 - " go antiquing" - well, sort of...

     Since it was around 100 degrees today and no sane person would be outside, Dad and I decided to drive to Collinsville to a postcard show.  Gary Brinkmeyer, a friend of ours, has been an avid collector for over 20 years and has tried to get Dad interested as well.  I wasn't too excited about the prospect and knew that Dad could (and probably would) stand at one table until he looked through each and every card that the vendor had for sale.  Well, I was right about that, but found that I actually enjoyed the day.  I was a little quicker than Dad and went from table to table looking for cards from Pana, Ottawa, Charleston and Jacksonville.            

     After about half an hour, I found a couple of cards that I liked, so called Dad over to pay for them.  The vendor said, "That will be 10."  I wondered why Dad gave him a 20 dollar bill instead of getting some change from his pocket.  I was shocked that the two cards were $10 instead of 10 cents!!  After that I was a little more selective in my choices. (I didn't buy that $35 card of Pana I saw.)
     The picture on the left is the BlackHawk Beach where Dad and his friends and siblings went swimming when he was young.  He said it was a great place until the polio scare in the 1950's.  It was thought that polio might be contracted from the lake water, so the beach was closed down.

     The picture on the right is Huber Memorial Hospital where I was born.  I was so excited to find this card.  I also have the original statement from the five days my mother was in the hospital for my birth. June 24 to June 29, 1948 with birthing fee, dressings, medicine, lab tests, light treatment and "care of baby" came to a grand total of $64.00.  And I'm worth every penny!
     The postcards themselves are antiques, with some we bought dating back to 1908 and 1909.  There is one of Eastern Illinois University with the campus lake directly behind Old Main and Pemberton.  Those two buildings made up the entire campus.  Dad is already thinking that he will go to another show sometime, only this time with his friend Gary.  That way he won't be limited to only 2 - 3 hours and he won't have to buy me a nice lunch afterwards.