Hello Everyone:
We are having a St. Louis Mini Meet, in St. Louis, on Friday December 1, Saturday December 2, and Sunday December 3.

Any VCCC member (and their guest) is welcome to join in the fun. We are having a small cocktail party at club member John Pease's home on Friday evening, and we'll get to see his collection. On Saturday everyone will come to my home for breakfast (sour cream waffles, bacon, sausage, fruit bowl, hash browns, etc.), see my collection, and have a bar b que lunch. Back to John's for dinner, and Ruth Hollander will be our guest speaker. Sunday, after breakfast at John's, we'll go to Stan Kann's for a tour of his collection and then lunch at Applebee's.

It's going to be a wonderful weekend, full of fun and laughs. John Pease will get on this thread with hotel info. We are really looking forward to anyone who wants to come to our St. Louis gathering. Derreck (our new club member and Electrolux brand manager) is going to show us how to rebuild Electrolux cleaners and share his collection of Lux with us as well as his collection of Electrolux-produced video tape demonstrations of the Guardian/Renaissance machines and others.

Hello everyone.. as Tom mentioned, the first weekend of December the St. Louis collectors will be hosting a mini meet. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone from Chicago again and hopefully meeting others for the first time. John Pease has spoken with several different hotels in the area to get rates. We will get that information together and hopefully post it tonight. There will be a lot to do and see and we are all trying to get all of our vacuums shined up and ready to go. Rick Asquith has bought some new shelves to display his canisters, and Tom and I helped him set them up a couple of weekends ago. They look really nice! He also wanted me to mention that everyone is invited to his place to see his collection. So that we can make preparations and get an idea of how many people will be attending the st. louis mini meet, please send an email to sprsonic1977@yahoo.com if you plan on joining us. Hope to see you then!!

Derreck

Hi this is John Pease here in St. Louis with some information about hotels that are near my home.

1. Best Western
Kirkwood Inn
1200 South Kirkwood Road
St. Louis, MO 63122
(314) 821-3950
www.bestwestern.com/kirkwoodinn

2. Holiday Inn
Southwest/Viking Conference Center
10709 Watson Road
St. Louis, MO 63127
(314)821-6600
www.hiviking.com

3. Hampton Inn
St. Louis/Sunset Hills
1580 South Kirkwood Road
St. Louis, MO 63127
(314) 984-8181
stlsh_hampton@hilton.com

4. Days Inn
3654 South Lindbergh Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63127
(314) 965-9733
www.stlouisdaysinn.com

These are only suggestions of hotels near my house that I have checked out and that are nice places and reasonably priced. If you would like to do hotel research on your own and need my address for distance calculations, I have included my address and phone # below. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Look forward to seeing you in December!


John Pease
11025 Golf Crest Drive
St. Louis, MO 63126
(314)843-0559
peasjr@aol.com

I am so excited. I can't wait to see everybody. It's been 6 years since I've been to a convention. Lot's of catching up to do.

To those who are going, is there anything as far as new machines from my store you would like to see. I have Miele, Sebo, and some metal Royal uprights. Let me know.

Andy

Andy:
Can't wait to visit with you. We are all going to have so much fun. I'm going to be displaying my straight suction upright collection, including the 1910 Royal model 1. Also, many people have never seen the Royal Prestige, with the first 'royal built' belt lifter and removeable nozzle. You were so kind to send me the instruction manual for it, along with the attachment converter. Also, the new DC17 Dyson Absolute. I'll get club member's reactions to it. It's self propelled, and very surprising in its redesign.

As we get closer to the Mini Meet, I'll be calling you with a 'request' list.

Just a few more weeks to go. I can't wait to cook for everyone on Saturday evening. We are going to make dishes that have recipe's from club members, like Morgan's Mashed Potatoes. Everyone went crazy for them in June, and recently at Fred Nelson's Chicago Mini Meet. They will be the 'featured recipe' at the front of our upcoming VCCC Cookbook.

Speaking of VCCC Cookbook, I remember seeing a post a while backsuggesting it, but don't remember hearing any more about it. Who is collecting/compiling the recipes? I might have one or two to contribute if it's not too late.
Jeff

Jeff:
Would LOVE to have your recipes. I'm compiling the cookbook, which the club is going to put up on the website. You can print out the recipes and accept all the compliments for them as if they were your own. I do all the time. Club President, Morgan Frazier, gave me his recipe for Mashed Potatoes which use a special combination of very fattening ingredients, but it's FANTASTIC. He got so many compliments at the Chicago Mini Meet, and I got to see him make them in person. I wrote down the recipe, and that will be our 'premier' recipe for the club cookbook. Charles Lester is an EXCELLENT cook with many recipes that he has shared with me over the years. The best being a sweet and sour chicken dish that is to DIE FOR.

Take heart, all the dishes for the cookbook are being tested and refined before inclusion on the website. I spoke to Morgan just last month about this subject and he is also excited by the prospect of a VCCC cookbook.

There are MANY good cooks in the club. If members could just email to me their favorite, time tested recipes, we'll make a test run, then include it in our collector's club cookbook. Also, if the name of the recipe can either have a member's name (such as Morgan's Mashed Potatoes) or a vac name (Rainbow Punch) that would be wonderful. At our St. Louis Mini Meet, all the recipes for the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, will come from the cookbook.

Tom G.
dysonman1@hotmail.com

I've got a killer recipe. Perhaps I will bring some up that we can have as an appetizer before dinner.

Andy:
That would be WONDERFUL. On Friday, everyone is going to gather at John Pease's home for cocktails, sandwiches, and such. Your dip would be excellent. On Saturday, club members will be invited to my home for a breakfast consisting of Fred Nelson's recipe for sour cream waffles, bacon, sausage, eggs, etc. Then, after viewing my collection, club members will be invited to Rick Asquith's home to see his collection. Then, back to John's for dinner. Ruth Hollander will be our guest speaker. On Sunday, after breakfast at John's, it's off to Stan Kann's to see his collection and hear him play the organ for us. Then, it's off to Derreck's to view his collection of beautiful Electrolux cleaners. Lots of fun and lots to do.

Can't wait to see you. Now that you have your own vac shop, we hardly ever get to visit. Thanks again for making the time to come to St. Louis. Wish you lived closer, I really miss seeing you.

Tom

y'all take lots of photos ....... and post 'em!!!!!

:)

Just maybe I will be able to come. I will have to check my calendar to make sure I am out of school. It is also quite a drive: Birmingham to St. Louis...MapQuest says ~8hrs...Maybe not this year. I think we should do a southeast get together at my house! But bring your vacuums to make up for the less-than-enough vacuums! :-) Maybe someday... I would love to come to a meeting as a guest of someone! I don't have the money hardly to buy another vacuum cleaner!