Greene County Fairgrounds

After a year and a half of not posting I have decided to start again and see if I can stay with it, so here goes.

We have been in Illinois since August, mostly in Carrollton visiting Tonya's mother. Tonya is trying to convince her to move in to a supported living apartment 15 miles away. She has been interviewed by a social worker to confirm that she qualifies and has put money down to hold one of the apartments there until the first of November, but every other day says she is not going. In the meantime Tonya is going through all of her old copies of bills etc. sorting, organizing, and shredding as needed. We have found all the documents she'll need if and when she decides to move. We think she is ready for supported living, which is not a nursing home but a place where meals, cleaning services, organized activities and other minimal support are provided to people with similar needs. All we can do at this point is get everything ready and encourage her to move.

We have spent some time visiting my family that lives about 2 1/2 hours north of here. While there I went to a high school class reunion and a memorial service for my aunt. I saw a lot of classmates I only see every 5 years, if I make it to the reunion, and relatives I haven't seen in 20 years or more, including some I have never met. Because I have been giving updates to so many people about how our family is doing a new "Moserism" occurred to me. "If bragging about your kids is a sin, I'm going to Hell."






We have been staying at the Greene County Fairgrounds, about a mile from Tonya's mom's house. It only has one 50 amp plug and we are the only RV here. The fairgrounds has a track for harness racing just behind us. Every morning several cart drivers exercise there horses around the track.

International Cue Collector's Show

There was an International Cue Collector's show in St. Louis last weekend. Several famous pool cue makers were there with there latest cue designs. These are not your every day playing cues but one of a kind. functional works of art that sell for thousands of dollars each. One of the cue makers there was Bill Schick from Shreveport, LA. He is in the cue makers Hall of Fame and made a cue for me in 1983 and one for Tonya in 1984 (these were the every day playing variety). He still remembered us, mainly because we brought him our own ideas for the design and Tonya wanted mauve colored highlights in the points. He said he didn't have a clue what "mauve" was at the time but didn't let on. We suspect he found out from his wife, at any rate Tonya has been playing with a beautiful cue with mauve highlights and her signature duplicated in a gold inlay on the butt for the past 27 years. I still have mine, one of a kind with my initials in gold on the butt, but have been using a different cue for the last several years.










Also at the show were several collectors of high end and famous old cues. The collectors came from all over the country and Japan to show off their collections and see what the cue makers have made that they may want to buy before the other guy gets it. I have included some pictures that do not really do justice to the craftsmanship required but may give an idea about the artistic ability necessary to come up with the designs. The cues are made of various exotic woods and the designs are inlaid wood, metal, ivory etc. some with scrimshawed engravings.