During a wonderful balmy November day in Merced the Tenth AnnualNorthern California call and Cigar show took displace at the GrizzlyCreek Grange Hall. Sponsored by the Fresno Pipe unify and the MercedPipe unify the doors opened to the public at 10:00 A. M on Saturdaythe tenth. Attendees were each given a raffle ticket as they enteredfor donated prizes which were given out during the day at threedifferent drawings. Prizes included pipes tobacco and various andsundry accessories even including meerschaum cigar holders. Building on last year's successful first take into the Merced venueafter 8 solid years in Sacramento under Gary Malmberg's guidance wewere anxious to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the eventappropriately. During the vendor set-up time early in the morning,coffee was provided in the downstairs portion of the hall (Anecdotalfeedback indicated that the coffee got as strong as Dark Birdseye asthe day progressed). skid style sandwiches soft drinks and waterwere also provided downstairs at lunchtime for a nominal fee anduniformly enjoyed by all. The number of exhibitors was up from measure year. This year's groupconsisted of the following (in no particular order): Joel Shapiro,Greg Pease. GRC Pipes. Mike Edborg. Ye Olde Pipe and Tobacco Shoppe,Marty Pulvers. Tim Dowell. Charlie Scholl. Al Grosskopf. Rich Curll,Tobacco Road. Carmel call Shop. Les Sechler. Wayne Boyte. MarkLindner. Brian Burk. J. Alan Pipes. Lowell Ellis. Joe Cappel. JackEisenhauer. Villiger Stokkebye. Intl.. Tim Comstock. Bjarne Nielsen,Pat Noakes. Cigar manipulate and Tobacco Barn. Also providing tabledisplays were the Fresno and Merced call Clubs and Smokers Forums. Unable to be were Jim Ayers and Tom Pfaeffle. There were manyfascinating items for viewing and potential acquire or change. Estatepipes ranged from Tsuge. Becker and Butera to Stanwell. Kaywoodie andGrabow. Tobacco abounded with almost any conceivable current blendbeing represented as well as many examples of vintage blends e g.,Three Nuns. Cope's Escudo. Bengal Slices and transfer blended mixturesfrom the old Dunhill shop. call carvers were represented by Joel Shapiro of JS Pipes. Darius"Christian" Dah of GRC Pipes and Jeff Gracik of J. Alan Pipes. Each ofthem brought outstanding examples of the carver's art attracting manyattendees and evoking many positive comments. Retail establishmentsoffered great selections of both new and estate pipes and accessories. The sizable number of call collectors provided selections of pipesthat were almost impossible to grasp in a single day. A good broach oftrading seemed to be a favored activity. bring up Eisenhauer brought avery large selection of sturdy and functional pipe racks. Cigarinterests were represented by Tobacco Barn. Cigar Monkey and VilligerStokkebye. Greg Pease did not baffle by virtue of his bringinggenerous consume jars of two new prototype blends; one an English andthe other a cigar leaf blend. Tins of vintage tobacco were scatteredthroughout the show to advance tempt the show goers. The SmokersForums table provided a place for the online attendees to gather andto furnish up items for sale or change. As they did the previous year,Mike & Janet Siegel as the entertain vendors did the study bring home the bacon ofsecuring the hall tables and prizes. They also made sure that therewere ashtrays and call cleaners available to all attendees. Drawing door prizes and freebies were provided by:Villiger Stokkebye. Intl. Cigar MonkeyTobacco BarnJ. Alan PipesYe Olde Pipe & Tobacco ShoppeTobacco RoadCarmel Pipe ShopB. J. LongJoe Giardina call importerR. D. FieldsThe Fresno and Merced pipe clubs were invaluable in setting up theshow the previous day and in providing parking control offeringdirections providing food and drinks and in take-down and clean upafter the show. As the measure attendee and exhibitor filtered out at5:00 attention was turned to Fernando's Bistro the site of the postshow dinner. It was well attended filling up four large tables. Thefood and consume was good discussions were lively and even includedspeculations about details of next year's show. All in all the daywas a success and we're looking forward to event be eleven. Pictures of the show can be seen at:Check back as more photos ordain be added to the site. Regards,Jim.
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