Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest 2014

The Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest of 2014 was held on October 23rd, 24th and 25th and was a huge success and a lot of fun for everyone.

The drive up to Morgantown, PA from Arlington, VA was nice and there was lots of Fall colors to be seen throughout the 3 hour drive.

The sky was overcast most of the day on Thursday, but that made for easy driving with no sunny glare.

A panoramic view of one of the auctions held at Keystone-Lehigh.

The matchbook collectors overwhelmed the staff at Zou's Garden Chinese Restaurant on Thursday night. Service was slow, but the food and company was great. Jimmie Close came up with a great idea, to pay individually at the counter instead of waiting at the table, so we could all be back in time for the night's 7 PM auction.

Thursday night's Bingo was a lot of fun and the matchcover prizes were fantastic. I had a very lucky run at Bingo and won (see image above) at least 12 packs of covers, including some really, really nice auto dealer covers. A big thank you to Grant for watching my card as I picked up my prizes.

Clem Pater auctioned material from a couple different estates while the ladies jokingly kept track of his mistakes. 

Friday afternoon Bill Calhoun and I went down to Claire's and had lunch. Bill's a great guy and has an amazing collection of toilet and outhouse matchcovers. Duane joined us for lunch shortly after.

Bill and Duane outside Claire's Restaurant.

Friday brought us really nice weather and an amazing sunset.

The Halloween costume contest had some great entries this year.

The winners.

Grant brought an absolutely amazing display of 1940's RMS photo matchbooks. 

Saturday night's banquet was great and the turkey I had was very good. The awards ceremony is always a nice way to end the convention. It's very easy to look around that room and consider everyone there part of your extended family. I know I do.

Keystone is always a fun event and this year was even better. As always, it was nice to see everyone again. They held three great auctions and the freebie tables were very, very good. The hospitality room was also very nice and supplied us with sodas, cookies, chips and other snacks. It's also a good place to socialize. I think everyone had a lot of nice material to take home with them and work with during this coming winter.

A big thank you to everyone involved in the Keystone swapfest, especially Bob Hofacker for keeping the freebie tables full (and everything else he does for all of us), Gayle Hofacker for getting everyone signed in, Clem Pater for being our auctioneer, Donna Longenecker for handling all of the auction items, and everyone else, the list is immense. Thank you all for a great convention.

Here are a few good quotes I heard during the Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest of 2014:

"You can't take it with you, but you can't go anywhere without it."

-Chuck Cummins

"A million dollars isn't what it used to be, unless you don't have it."

-Bob Hofacker

"Get off the table, Mabel, the money's for the beer." (in immediate response to Bob Hofacker asking that everyone get off the freebie tables so we could all go to lunch)

- Jack Blackburn