Return-Path: Received: from web5201.mail.yahoo.com ([216.115.106.95]) by hazard.mail.mindspring.net (Mindspring Mail Service) with SMTP id t6d5oq.3bm.37kb01i for ; Thu, 18 Jan 2001 02:11:22 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <20010118071120.24410.qmail@web5201.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [64.12.102.156] by web5201.mail.yahoo.com; Wed, 17 Jan 2001 23:11:20 PST Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 23:11:20 -0800 (PST) From: MPCgram Subject: MPC Gram 228 To: mpcgram@yahoo.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii ==================================================== MPC Gram ==================================================== Covering the Entire World of Military Numismatics ---------------------------------------------------- Series 002-Number 228 Thurski -18 January 2001 Just Keep on Truckin by Larry "Ski" Smulczenski Do you ever sit back and clearly recall something out of the distant past while you have a difficult time remembering something you heard or did in the last couple of days. I know I do. That softball game at Chennault Air Force Base, Louisiana where I hit three home runs and made a leaping catch at the wall to end the game comes back as clearly as if it was played last week instead of over 40 years ago. But I will be damned if I can find where I put that data on the notes I was working on just before we left for FUN. I blame my wife for throwing it out, when I know darn well that I put is somewhere so it wouldn't get lost. I wonder where that safe place is. Memories of last years Fest fall into that former category. Many funny and memorable stories came out of that couple of days from last February. For me it started the prior weekend in Chicago at CPMX (The Chicago Paper Money Expo). I flew into Midway and was picked up by Brian Giese. Shortly after we got to the convention hotel, it started to snow. From our tenth floor room overlooking La Guardia [it is that memory thing, he meant Oharre, editor], we watched the snow coming down. It wasn't long until the snow closed the airport and we watched hundreds of snowplows clearing the runways and roads around the airport. The snow fell throughout the night and by morning there was 12 to 15 inches on the ground. (That's a lot for a guy from Florida.) But by the end of the show, the legions of snow plows had the roads clear and Leo May and I started the journey to Port Clinton the next day. Leo and I started talking notes as soon as we got on Interstate 90. It was non-stop talk, just like two teen-age girls on the telephone. We stopped to fuel the vehicle and had some lunch and then went back to our drive and chat. As we traveled down the road, I pointed to a police car that had pulled over a car. We passed and I was surprised to see it was a Michigan trooper on an Indiana highway. Could it be that since Highway 90 was so close to the Michigan border, both Highway Patrols monitored it? Twenty miles down the road we saw another police car making a stop. Again, it was a Michigan State Patrol. Something was wrong!! It wasn't long until we passed a sign that said "Kalamazoo-20 miles." We were so engrossed talking about notes that we took the wrong highway and ended up going north into Michigan. We had promised to take Judy Schwan out to dinner that night. Needless to say, we didn't make it into town in time to make dinner that night so Fred had to take Judy to dinner. But we kept on talking and trucking. The motel where we had the Fest is right on Lake Erie. During the period of time that we were there last year, you could easily have walked on water as the lake was frozen solid. The Festers came by car, truck, plane and train from all corners of the States. Phil Goldstein came by train from New York. Fred knew when Phil was coming in, so he asked me to pick him up---at 2AM. Port Clinton doesn't have a train station, but Sandusky, about 10 miles to the east does. However, it’s not a large station and at two in the morning, it was locked up tighter than a drum. The train was 30 minutes late and I don't think it made more than a rolling stop as they kicked Phil off. He was the only one getting off at that time in the middle of the night. Some of the finest MPC collections in the world were on display in Port Clinton last year. Lectures were given on different phases of MPC collecting and we talked and traded and talked some more. Slides of proposed and rejected designs of MPC were shown. There were treasures such as souvenir cards, and Fest MPC that everyone got to take home. The Fest MPC turned up with a few replacements and specimen books. Doug Bell promised a surprise for everyone after they got home. He had hoped to have it at the Fest but the mails ran a little slow. He also took orders for Fest T-shirts and sweat shirts that really turned out great. His surprise did show up in our mail boxes in a few weeks and turned out to be stage prop MPC used in some movies. He had found someone that had access to these items and talked them out of some for Fest participants. What a surprise that was. One of participants even started a short snorter by having every one sign a first series 461 $5 bill for the First Fest. Rumors are that he has a second series 471 $10 note to be signed at this year Second Fest. Needless to say, everyone had a great time and many of us look forward to getting together again this year. Already we've received an inquiry from a great English collector that has indicated his interest in attending. Port Clinton has always had the reputation of being the home of MPC because of a great Midwest collection that resides there. But during Fest Weekend, it becomes the center of the MPC universe because of the knowledge, enthusiasm and dedication of the collectors that come to town. Like that ball game I mentioned in the first paragraph, this is an event you'll never forget. ==================================================== Editorial ---------------------------------------------------- Well my own complaint editorial generated many responses. More than any other gram item I believe. I appreciate each response. I also appreciated the original complaints. Most of the responses had a humorous side to them and you will get to read most or all of them, or most of some of them, or some of all of them, or.... One pointed out a very large mistake that I had made because of not reading and responding to email. I was not even aware of it, or had forgotten it (see ski's column above) or had repressed it. All of this is motivating me to at least try to do better. This is a promise that I was not willing to make 20 hours ago so I guess that is progress! All of the email received today was responded to promptly! There is still a pile from days (and weeks) ago, but today's was answered. Not all action was taken, but at least acknowledgments were sent. In spite of having done that today, I do not intend to respond to gram items that will appear here within a few days. There is another twist to all of this. For seemingly mysterious reasons, all email does not get delivered. There have been several confirmed cases of the gram not being delivered on a given day even though issues before and after were delivered correctly. Go figure. I got to thinking that possibly we should modify the gram number by adding a slash and numeral for the number of consecutive days that I kept up with email. Today's gram would be 228/1. Hm, then we might add the number of consecutive days that I worked out on my ski machine (no relation to Larry). Something like 228/1/55 (ok a gross exaggeration). Thank you again for your letters. I hope to get to some serious (sorta) MPC items in the next few days. ==================================================== Mail Call ---------------------------------------------------- Dear Gramsters, Let me be the first to openly complain about the management of the gram. Perhaps it is time the Board of Directors for BNR Press assembled and carefully evaluated the performance of its' chief editor and make adjustments accordingly and enhance motivation. First I recommend that we cut all stock options and scale down the healthcare benefits to one of the those HMO's. No more matching funds for his 401K plan and first class air travel will be restricted to international travel only. Mandatory overtime shall be worked and breaks will be limited to 10 minutes twice a day until the gram is back up and running to meet customer expectations. From now on, coffee will be paid for out of the editor's pocket. Perhaps the absence of these benefits will motivate our editor to put more time and effort into his work! It is the right of every Gramster to have his/her e-mail count. There are perhaps a dozen or Gramsters who have had their e-mail disenfranchised by the editor's failure to publish or respond. I believe that I speak for all us...... Fred, take the cats to the humane society, give up the chess tournaments and get to work doing the Gramsters' business. If we keep this kind of performance up, the Fractional Currency Gram will make a mockery out of us! We pay far too much for subscriptions and classified ads to tolerate this kind of slacking! Marcus Turner PS: Can you tell me that the value of a 10 cent MPC is? Marcus Turner Dear Marcus, I am sorry to have to inform you that you were not first! Fred =================================================== Departments --------------------------------------------------- WWII numismatics seminar at ANA Summer Seminar 2001 --------------------------------------------------- Not only does the scholarship fund have an official identity but also has a bank account! Any further donations should be paid to the order of "Military Numismatists Scholarship" and sent to: Military Numismatists c/o Marcus Turner 8103 East US Highway 36 Suite 163 Avon, IN 46123 THE UPDATED LIST OF SCHOLARSHIP BENEFACTORS 11/22/00. These folks have generously provided money or material to finance scholarships to the ANA WWII Numismatics seminar. Your contributions will help promote collecting WWII material and be greatly appreciated. Mike Cummings Ed B. Doug Bell R. A. Medina Harold MPCKid Kroll Leo "Paymaster" May Bill McNease Marcus Turner Larry Ski Fred PK6 Joel Shafer World Wide Ventures John & Nancy Wilson Neil Shafer ----------------------------------------------------- MPC Fest II ----------------------------------------------------- MPC Fest is the annual feast of MPC. After some difficulties of coordination we have not changed the dates and tentatively scheduled 9-11 March 2001 for MPC Fest II. Confirmed participants in MPC Fest II Doug Bell Bill McNease Harold Kroll Larry Smulczenski Leo May Marcus Turner Kevin Maloy Marv Mericle Bruce Potter Nick Shrier Fred Schwan (the next reservation ties last year's participation) If you have made a reservation and your name does not appear above, please contact the gram immediately (MPCgram@yahoo.com). Tentative schedule as of 15 January 2001 Friday March 8 1500-1900 Arrivals at Comfort Inn 1900-2030 no host dinner at Cisco and Charlies 2030-2300 bull session at Comfort Inn 2400 lights out Saturday breakfast at Comfort Inn 0730-0845 breakfast at Comfort Inn 0900-1000 equipment issue (supply sergeant) 1000-1100 pay operations (pay master) 1100-1230 show and tell, session I 1230-1330 pizza party at Comfort Inn (mess sergeant) 1330-1800 swap session (dealer surcharge, TBD) 1800-1930 spaghetti dinner at Comfort Inn (mess sergeant) 1930-2030 secret operations 2000-2345 commemorative poker game at Comfort Inn 2200 MPC chat (simultaneous with poker game) 2400 lights out Sunday 0830-0900 breakfast at Comfort Inn 0900-1000 research updates 1000-1230 show and tell 1230-1330 lunch at Comfort Inn 1300-1500 field trip to WWII POW camp 1530 closing ceremonies Monday (optional, weather permitting) 0600-0630 breakfast 0700-1400 Walleye fishing trip Remarks: registration is $139 per person. This includes two nights lodging (double occ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/