11:13 AM

While at the Valentine Club's dinner, I met  Cameron Nickels who published his book in 2010, Civil War Humor. Google books give some sample pages 
The preface gives some background why he wrote the book. 
In college I took a course called Death, Dying & Bereavement and humor is a way to begin to heal and deal with difficult times.



It was a lively dinner with about 20 people and I sat next to Kathy who keeps a blog on 2oth Century Trends called On Trend Design 


You'd think we'd have nothing in common- after all I am interested in the 1850s, but that's just not true, and people in the 1850s had trends too. (Kathy Alpert is on the left- the lady on the right collects civil war valentines). I mentioned I was working on a book proposal and that started a lengthy conversation. 


As you can see lots of people were chatting, networking and listening to different views and new ideas.










The web master for the Ephemera Society's Facebook page is Lauren Sodano. She works for the Strong Museum in Rochester NY. She was asking people, 
"How do you see value in Ephemera." 
Of course, my eye candy is 1850s pamphlets that aren't colorful but they support my findings...another person might think value means its gotta cost a lot of money. My hubby always says, "Best in bred and best in class...and something that tells a story."  I'd love to hear what you think value means to you.


After the banquet, a dozen of us dashed over in three cars to have dessert in a diner. 
Before dessert




After dessert- I had an apple tart & coffee.


Anne Stewart O'Donnell passed around a Arts & Crafts book that she wrote all the catalogue descriptions- that's impressive!!! 
Barb & Donny from Canada are taking the Titanic Memorial Cruise in 2012  Just 380 days from now....I've seen the exhibit twice and it is still gives me chills.


Perhaps I have encouraged you to join a group, get involved and meet some interesting people.