A Book Fair and a Model Show

Last Saturday morning (4 May), I was at the Greensfelder Recreational Complex at Queeny County Park (https://www.stlouisco.com/ParksandRecreation/RecreationComplexes/GreensfelderRecreationComplexinQueenyPark) for this year's Greater St. Louis Book Fair (https://stlouisbookfair.org/). It's an annual charity book sale, held since 1950, where hundreds of used and rare books are sold. Proceeds from this event go to St. Louis area non-profit education and literacy programs.

I was there as a volunteer, which I have done for the past few years. I helped with making sure everything was in place and ready to go when the show opened to the public. Then, I spent most of my shift walking through the aisles, answering customer questions and helping restack misplaced items. The last half hour was at the area where books are restocked.

After my shift ended, I did a bit of shopping, buying three books and a movie DVD for myself. It was a very nice time as always.

The threat of flooding caused postponement of that night's scheduled match between Saint Louis FC (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/) and Ottawa Fury FC. It will be rescheduled for a later date this season.

The next morning found me at the Kirkwood Community Center (https://www.kirkwoodparksandrec.org/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/3/445) for the spring show of the Midwest Model Vehicle Association (MMVA) (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/mmva-page). I was there at this model car contest and vendor swap meet representing IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home). Our club had a table with several models I brought and some club flyers. Bill Wagner, IPMS/Gateway's vice president, also manned the table with me.

I browsed among the vendors, chatting with several of them, and looked over the models entered in the contest. Our table had several visitors, who chatted with Bill and I. It was a nice show and a good way to promote our club and hobby.

The MMVA Fall Show will be held on Sunday, 27 October at the Kirkwood Community Center.

Later.

Supporting Saint Louis FC Against Swope Park Rangers

Early last Saturday night (27 April) was another home match for Saint Louis FC (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/) at Toyota Stadium of World Wide Technology Soccer Park (https://www.saintlouisfc.com/soccerpark). I arrived early as usual for the St. Louligans (http://stlouligans.com/) tailgate in the parking lot. I enjoyed a pulled pork sandwich with cole slaw and Schlafly (http://www.schlafly.com/) Ale d'Or beer on tap from the St. Louligans' trailer.

My high school friends Paul Trelford and Tom Mantych came to the tailgate again to take in the scene and to chat with me before going to their seats for the match.

We St. Louligans marched into the stadium about 30 minutes before kick off and assembled in our usual section. Saint Louis FC was hosting cross-state rivals Swope Park Rangers.

The home side scored late in the first half and early in the second half to take a 2-0 lead. Swope Park pulled one back midway in the second half before Saint Louis added an insurance goal late in the match. Saint Louis FC won 3-1 to stay in first place in the Eastern Conference of the USL Championship (https://www.uslsoccer.com/usl-championship). The players joined us in the corner to serenade us.

I went home happy about another win for my side. Saint Louis FC is back in action this Saturday (4 May), hosting Ottawa Fury FC .

Later.

Watching World War II Reinactors at Jefferson Barracks

Yesterday morning, I drove out to Jefferson Barracks County Park (https://stlouisco.com/Parks-and-Recreation/Park-Pages/Jefferson-Barracks) in Lemay for their annual World War II Weekend. This is an event featuring military reinactors who camp out in the park like soldiers in World War II. Participants are reinacting United States, Canadian, British, Soviet, German, and Italian troops. They wear authentic uniforms, use authentic equipment--down to reproductions of grooming kit--and operate weapons and vehicles of the period.

This event is organized by the U.S. 2nd Ranger Infantry Battalion of St. Louis, Inc. (https://www.facebook.com/2ndRangersSTL/), one of the reinactor groups taking part. Other groups come from around the Midwest for the weekend, which began Friday night and ended late Sunday afternoon.

I arrived on the site just after it opened for the day at 9:00 am. It was overcast and there was some slight rain overnight. I walked around the encampments, photographing the tents, equipment, weapons, and troops. A building hosted vendors selling gear for reinactors, and a display by the Military Vehicle Modeling Association (https://www.militarymodel.org/#!) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/514075095676962/).

Then, I walked about 0.25 mile (0.4 km) to a field, where a battle took place. The reinactors either marched or rode in vehicles to the field for a mock skirmish. It rained slightly during this time. Firing blank ammunition, they simulated small unit infantry combat as done during World War II. The firefight--the first of three that weekend--lasted about 25 minutes and the crowd applauded the participants for their performance.

After the battle, I walked back to the encampment for some more viewing and taking more photographs. However, during my walking, the sole on one of my boots came off, so I had to cut short my stay and headed back home. Before going to my car, I did chat with an acquaintance who was one of the German reinactors this weekend. Still, I had a fine time at this living history event.

Later.

Hawaiian Party with Enterprise

After work this past Thursday night (25 April), I drove to The Caramel Room at Bissinger's (https://www.caramelroom.com/) in downtown St. Louis. A party was held there for Enterprise Holdings (https://www.enterpriseholdings.com/en/index.html) employees in the St. Louis area. This event had a Hawaiian theme, so most attendees--including myself--wore Hawaiian shirts. I bought mine the day before at Target (https://www.target.com/) just for this event.

Though I had a full day of work before this party, I did have a fun time. I chatted with many of my colleagues and enjoyed complementary food and drink. Each attendee received two drink tickets--I had two beers--and there were buffets for tacos and burgers. Plus, there was free chocolate treats from Bissinger's (https://www.bissingers.com/). Overall, it was a wonderful time.

Later.

Show & Tell at the April IPMS/Gateway Meeting

Last Tuesday night (16 April), I went to Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/) for this month's IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) meeting. (I was home sick from work that day, due to a bad chest cold; I was back at work on Thursday, though.) I opened the Fellowship Hall and helped set it up for the meeting.

My latest work in progress--a 1:72 scale P-47D Thunderbolt--was there for the Show & Tell segment of the meeting. I had done some interior painting on the model. Several other models that were completed or in progress were also on display.

We also got our new club polo shirts in. I ordered two--one in purple (our official color) and the other in dark greenn. They are very nice and should make a very favorable impression at model shows.

We also had a demo by Jim Triola on lighting models, which was quite informative. Overall, a fine night.

Later.