From: ?????????????????
Subject: PD Submission--CORPS show

On Columbus Day weekend, I attended my first pipe show:  the 
CORPS show in Richmond, Virginia.  A couple of friends who'd attended 
last year talked me in to accompany them.  (They didn't have to try that 
hard.)  Ostensibly, I went with the intent of only getting a pipe rack to 
hold my rapidly-expanding collection.  (Yeah, sure...)  Well, on 
Saturday morning, I did indeed find a nice used, 20-pipe lazy-susan type 
rack.  A real highlight of the weekend was meeting some of the people 
I've been reading about in PD over the last year, including Mark Tinsky 
(the biggest "find" I've scored was finding a 1986 Tinsky Christmas Pipe 
in an estate pipe sale); and Bill Unger of the North American Socitey of 
Pipe Collectors (who of course talked me into a membership, and whom I 
gratefully hold responsible for spending even more money that weekend!)  
Bill pointed out the interview with Paul Bonaquisti in NASPC's latest 
issue, then pointed Paul's table out.  There, besides Paul, was an 
exquisite churchwarden--something I've always wanted.  Not much time 
passed before it became the most expensive pipe I've ever bought.  On 
Sunday, my heart talked me into buying my first Italian Pipe--a carved, 
bent RoverArt.  I also picked up a few modestly-priced additions to the 
collection, including a Comoy's and a Savinelli--my first billiards.  By 
the time I left on Sunday, the excess capacity in my new circular pipe 
rack was already filled!
	A hats-off thanks to CORPS for a most enjoyable and successful 
show.  I'm already looking forward to next year's show, and I haven't 
even broken in all of this year's treasures.

-Steve Johnson
 Alexandria, VA-

[ CORPS is, indeed, a great bunch.  Maybe next year I'll be able to
get down there. -S. ]


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