the 10th anniversary picnic has come and gone, now have to wait for another whole year before number 11. What a great day. What a great group of people. What a good bunch of food, and there was a lot of it. By the end of the day there were just crumbs left.
I think this was one of our larger, if not the largest, group of barnstormers. And I know we had many more donations for the auction than we normally have. We had to set up an additional table to hold all the memorabilia.
We had two guest speakers, one a Professor who shared a lot if information about Wheeling in the late 1800's through the 1900's, little known tidbits that we were not aware of.
Our second speaker was Stuart Bloch, a direct descendant of the original Bloch Brothers who founded Bloch Brothers Tobacco, and began our first form of roadside advertising, the Mail Pouch Barns.
It was fun meeting up with folks you only saw once a year, from all over the country. I am always amazed at how far some of our members travel to attend this fun day. At the present time we have 155 members, gaining a few new ones almost every year. That is a pretty awesome number, in my opinion.
This is Mr. Bloch telling tales about Mail Pouch. He was quite an interesting gentlemen, and even though the tobacco company was sold many years ago, he still maintains an office in their headquarters on Water Street in Wheeling, and helps oversee the management of the Company.
How many companies today still have in their management positions descendants of the original founders? It is a rarity.
The day passed quickly, all too soon it was time to say good by, and head for home. Now it is time to start planning for next year's picnic. It is always the 4th Saturday in July, which will be July 28 2012, Mark your calendars, come to Belmont Ohio, near St. Clairsville, Ohio, head for the school gymnasium - there are signs pointing the way - and picnic with the best of the best in a nice air-conditioned building.
Until next year, God Bless.
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