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The conference began on Thursday
night, June 8, as people arrived from all over the United States, including
Hawaii, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, St. Louis, California, Colorado
and Kansas. We met for an informal
dinner at the nearby Yardhouse Restaurant.
We had two first-time attendees, Linda Margolin (Detroit, Michigan)
and Darlene Vermeulen.
Friday, June 9, was all Monkey
Business. We viewed a PowerPoint
presentation of Linda Margolin's collection, and also went through the items
for sale in the Etsy shop "ThreeMonkeysStore". We held a group discussion on the ever
increasing importance of civility in general and the No Evil concepts in
particular. In the afternoon several
collectors bought and sold sets of No Evil Monkeys (and other critters). For dinner we went to the home of Monkey
Collector (and Barbecue champion) Hal Walker and his wife Maryann. We viewed Hal's spectacular collection of
No Evils and enjoyed an excellent meal.
Maryann, who is an accomplished baker, made Monkey Cupcakes for
dessert. See picture. It was a great evening of No Evil food and
fellowship.
Saturday was reserved for
sightseeing. Several collectors
visited the Steamboat Arabia (which sunk in the Missouri River in 1856, and
was excavated, revealing tons of goods and hardware headed for the Western
Frontier of the US). Some went to the
Kansas City, Missouri Public Library, the outside walls and steps of which
are giant books. Others went to the
Nelson-Atkins Art Gallery. A couple
visited the National World War I Memorial and Museum. And, of course, many went antiquing,
looking for No Evils in the flea market part of town called The West Bottoms.
On Saturday night, we ate dinner
at the home of Gregg and Kenda Ottinger, and viewed Gregg's No Evil
collection. Special thanks to Kenda's
sister Kellie, who made a special display room for the No Evils, and cooked
great tacos!
On Sunday we met again for a final
discussion and to say goodbye until next year. We decided to hold the 2018 USA No Evil
Monkey Collectors Conference in Savannah, Georgia. It will be held in October, 2018, since we
no longer are limited to summer meetings (as the younger children have grown
up and we are no longer on a school vacation schedule).
Gregg
Ottinger
13503 W.
47th Terrace
Shawnee,
KS 66216
Tel: (913) 268-0920 (home)
(202) 289-8400 (office)
Cell: (240) 461-4425
E-mail:
gdo@duncanallen.com
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