Okay, the kids are in bed. Time for the Sunday events report. First a big thankyou to Brad for taking the time to post the photos, despite the fact that circumstances conspired to make him miss his first Symposium.
As I am writing this, I am both elated by what was one of the most fun Symposium weekends ever, and depressed, as I always am, when such a great weekend is over and everyone has headed for home. But I digress . . . today's events:
We all met at Mark Hoffman's offices to view his amazing collection at 11:00 a.m. He served us a spread from Katz's Deli (made famous by the movie When Harry Met Sally), including Pastrami (the best sandwich I ever had - now I understand how Jews can survive without pork), Corned Beef and Turkey sandwiches, Knishes, Cole Slaw, Potato Salad, Pickles, etc. We all sat and listened as Ken and Richard educated us on the differences between hollow casting, spin casting and die casting. At Mark's request, Ken Osen selected various items from his collection and peopled the two dioramas Ken had presented Mark with from the two Symposia he had attended. We all checked out the new additions to Mark's incredible collection, including the Metal Shed WWI Train, a Figarti Custom B17F in the marking of RAF Coastal Command, his complete John Jenkins Designs collection, and several Lezinski pieces I had never seen before.
With the assistance of Doug Luna, I obtained four Lezinski Elephants (two pulling a large field gun and limber, and two carrying disassembled field guns on their backs) I had coveted since first seeing the same sets in Mark's collection.
After an amazing afternoon, Mark took Doug, Richard and myself down to the garage to see his "baby" - a Mercedes SLS Gullwing, my dream car. Thanks to Mark, I can now at least say i have sat in the driver seat and started one up.
The Doug, Richard Walker and myself, having thanked Mark and said our goodbyes to he and all the other attendees, went to the Wollenski Grill and Smith & Wolenski and had the traditional Symposium farewell dinner: the best Cheeseburgers in Manhattan. Doug told us stories about his experiences in Vietnam that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Finally, after one of the most fun weekends of my life, my new friend Richard, my old friend Doug and I hugged and said our farewells.
I guess now I start counting down the days to the Valley Forge Show, when I will see Richard, Ken, Erika, Tom Dubel, Hans, Brad, Chris, Mark and the rest of my friends who will be attending again.
I want to extend a special thanks to Ken, Erika and Richard for taking the time, effort and expense to join us and help make the weekend so special. I took a bunch of photos of the days events and Mark's collection, and I will forward them to Brad with a polite request that he post them on this thread.:smile2:
