I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to stock up on food supplies and to ask about Mister Johnson. I was out of town this past week end on business and I was wondering how Mister Johnson was doing with his summer cold. Colds can be annoying but are not usually fatal. On the other hand, Mister Johnson is getting on up in years and he has not really been his old self since his heart attack last year. Mister Johnson has recently been under the weather, an expression we country folks use to mean someone is not feeling so well as they might, and it has been just one minor problem after another. He even went to a doctor last month and kept around the house for a few days. Now he has this nagging summer cold that just keeps hanging on.
When I drove up to the store, I parked over to the side so Jake would not come bustling out to see if I needed to fill up with gas. I went inside and glanced over toward the pot belly stove where Mister Johnson normally holds court when he is in the store. Ronnie Clayton was over talking with Jack Witherspoon but Mister Johnson was no place to be seen. I walked over to Jake and asked about Mister Johnson and he told me Mister Johnson was out on his land cutting wood for burning in the pot belly stove this winter. Mister Johnson has a sizeable track of woodland out by his place and he has for years supplied wood for the stove at Charlie’s. Mister Johnson has some right valuable timber on his land and he cuts wood from the scrub that grows up, leaving the big trees to spread out more.
That Mister Johnson was out working sounded good to me, so I wandered over to where Ronnie and Jack were passing the time. You don’t often see Jack Witherspoon in the store. Jack is a full time farmer and does not often have the time to hang around and exercise his mouth. Ronnie stuck out his hand and said he was glad to see me and started telling me about a painting he was working on. It seems a lady in Corinth has commissioned Ronnie to paint a portrait of her nine year old granddaughter. Ronnie is a right accomplished artist, but he has never been able to make a living with his painting, so he keeps a day job over in Savannah.
As Ronnie was telling about his commission, Bob Havershold came in. Bob and his family moved down from Chicago a few years back and he and I have become good friends. Bob came over to ask how the show up in North Carolina had gone and if I had sold enough to make the trip worth while. I told Bob it had been a good trip.
I do work in the Comic Book industry and I go to comics shows several times a year to make contacts with others of similar interests. Most shows, called comics conventions, are a three day affair running mostly over a Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
In essence, a comics convention is a glorified flea market. While there are other features to a con, the centerpiece is the dealers’ room where dealers and store owners come to set up shop and sell their wares. Most of what is traded and sold consists of comic book and science fiction related items. Star Wars and Star Trek items are in big demand. There are also art rooms where local artists display their paintings. The paintings and sketches are generally fantasy and science fiction related.
Most comics conventions attempt to secure name celebrities for the show. The prominence of the celebrity generally indicates the quality of the show. Minor shows will likely have lower ranked television actors and sci-fi writers no one has ever heard of. The bigger shows can sometimes produce major movie stars and first rank best selling authors for display. There is a major show in San Diego, California, each year that has become such a big draw that Hollywood movie producers show up with specially designed trailers showing off and promoting upcoming big budget movies.
The show in North Carolina had been in no wise that big. This had been a small show with less than four thousand comic book and sci-fi fans attending. I had purchased a booth by phone using my credit card this past March when I first heard of the show. I gathered up my books and special CD products along with several promotional items and headed for North Carolina on Thursday. I arrived at the show’s location Thursday night and checked into the hotel room. Friday morning I went to the convention area located in the same hotel and set up my table. The three days went pleasantly, meeting new people and, on several occasions, meeting fans who had purchased my Tandra products by mail. It’s always nice to talk to your customers face-to-face. You can get a better idea of what they like and of the things they are not so crazy about. Come Sunday evening, I packed up and drove back home. When I counted up the totals, it turned out I had made a small profit.
“But did you see Charlotte?” Bob wanted to know. Charlotte Crum is a former childhood sweetheart I knew back when we were both very young and when she was Charlotte Williamson. She has lived in North Carolina a number of years with her husband who has now passed away. She came to the store to ask about me last Fall when she was back in this area on family business. Since then we have occasionally talked by phone for hours at the time. I told Bob that Charlotte came to the show on Saturday and we went out to dinner that evening. That is all Bob needs to know.
I bought some milk and bread and, as I was driving home I decided it would probably be a good idea to phone Charlotte just to let her know I had made it home safely.
END
