...And what a great time I had, renewing old friendships and finally meeting new ones in person. ( I started a list of people I wanted to acknowledge seeing but there were so many and so many others which I knew I would forget that I decided not to list any for fear of self-embarrassment .

But I would be remiss if I did not publically mention two persons in particular, our convention chairman, Wayne Thompson and our webmaster, Greg Susong.

An apology and thank you. The apology is to Archie Black for insinuating that all dealers were greedy. I was proven wrong more than once but this last act of compassion offered by Archie to give, without charge, an extra Hard Rock convention chip to someone who was unable to get one himself (and in turn the gracious act of the intended recipient to turn down the offer because he was already offered one by some else) and the thank you to John Kallman, who made me the same offer. We all know what that Hard Rock chip is bringing on e-bay.

To Marty and Neal, I just read your latest article in the Casino Player magazine which was included in our convention package and together with Gene, I once again thank you all so much for these articles which can all but enhance our membership and interest of others to our organization. Together with Nate and Ralph, I'm sure we all wish you great success during your term of office in the CC>CC.

And while we are mentioning articles, what about the terrific job John and Allan and doing with our club magazine. It is amazing to me how you both can consistently publish such a fine publication time and time again. If I could only figure out how to receive my copy by regular mail (only 100 miles from you) before Bob Herman's gets his.

As a collector, I believe the trading session was one of the many highlights of the convention. Whose ever idea it was to start the trading in the morning certainly came up with a winning idea.

A very special thanx to Glenda, Jim Reilly's friend, who entertained my wife during most of the convention so I could spend all my time on the floor going through the $2.00 boxes many of the dealers had on display (purchased a little over 250 of those) as well as the $6.00 boxes of $5.00 chips.

As Dave Moore posted in an earlier message, I will be putting many of my duplicate chips on the board for trade or if worse comes to worse, sale so that I can end up with a new selection of traders for next year.

Thanx to everyone who is making my retirement years a pleasure. May we all stay healthy and meet once again under the same pleasant circumstances.