"Checkers is a Fun and Fascinating Game:

[Mr. Checkers]

"Checkers is a Fun and Fascinating game for all of us. And there are many different groups of people from all walks of life that participate in it. Lets take a brief look at just of few of them. The first group are those that eat, sleep, drink and live for playing the game 24 hours a day. I think that my friend Alex would come under this heading. I am sure that you will recall several others that fit here. The second group love playing checkers, but they also are involved in other aspects of the game. Richard Pask plays and authors books, Wilma Wolverton plays and publishes a checker newsletter, Hugh Devlin plays and is involved in several administrative aspects of the game, Gerry Lopez plays and promotes the game whenever and where ever possible, George Miller plays and gives us the BBS, etc., etc. The third group seldom if at all plays checkers, but their contribution and imput into our game is without doubt very interesting to be sure. And it is to this group that I would like to share a little with you today. (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

We are on the checkers/draughts section of Ebay many hours per day and it is there that we meet some very truly interesting people who like ourselves are addicted for some reason or another to checkers. Lets visited just a few of those here today (and more later). I hope that all of you know how Ebay works. Well one day we were bidding on a beautiful set of Catalin checkers. This item attracted several bidders from around the world. It was not our day and we lost the bid to a nice lady from Kansas City. Never having heard of her before I emailed her to ask if she collected checker sets. I receved a very lovely reply from and elderly lady that said--"oh yes, I have over 200 sets that I have collected". As a collector I was of course interested in her response so I asked her what she did with them and she kindly replied that--"I put them all around to decorate my home". From that point on we had a common bond and became very good friends. (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

Not knowing many times who one is bidding against I put a rather large bid in on a really old draughts postcard, which I dearly wanted for our checker museum. Thinking I had it made on this one I became a little lax and when the fur stopped flying at the end of the auction I found myself in deep disappointment in knowing that I lost the bid on it. So again I contacted the bidder who's name is Hans and he was from Europe. I soon found out that he was one of the leading collectors of very old draughts pictures, postcards, sculpture, etc. and that he had thousands of them in his prize collection. So quickly I learned who and who not to bid against, because from what he paid for that draughts postcard I knew that he had more money than I did. (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

There was this beautiful draughts pin or badge that I thought to myself I would like to have to wear to some of the checker tournaments, so I put a nice bid in on it. Being a novice bidder at that time I was not aware who I was bidding against. So the last day of the auction came up--I was all excited about getting this neat checker item, but then reality set in (as I had again been overbid by some fellow from Europe). Being interested in who it was I emailed him. He returned my email stating that he was a collector of draughts pins and badges (and that he had several of them in his fine collection)and that he had been collecting them for some time now. He kindly shared interesting information about his collection with me. Today we are friends and share a kind word or two every now and then. Merry Christmas Mr. Delvin--I hope that you received the Christmas gift that we sent out to you. (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

I love peoiple and I find them to be very interesting. And on Ebay there is no end to the characters to you may come across. To this story I said "Oh no, don't do that". Roger Blaine and I often find ourselves bidding against each other on Ebay. Roger has always been very kind in passing on items that he knows I want to get for our museum. One day we were both bidding on a beautiful Catalin checker set. There is an old expression that says never count your chickens before they hatch. This was one of those times. We both got outbid on this one to be sure by a lady with a lot of greenbacks. Being interested in who bought it I emailed the buyer and ask if she was a collector or not? She soon replied with "no I am not". So I asked her what she does with the Catalin checker sets that she buys. Her answer--"I cut them up and make fine jewelry out of them". What could I say. (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

Here is a little piece of checker trivia for you checker buffs. In the 1800's most checkers were made out of wood (one would often cut a broom stick into 24 peices and stain half of the pieces into a darker color) or paper checker sets were also commonly found. Question: What other 2 materials were checkers made of during this period of time? (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

If a friend of yours invited you out to go fishing on his boat during the summertime (here only ice fishermen are out today since its way below zero) so you may want to take a checker set along to use while you are waiting for the fish to bite. You think about your choices for awhile--should I take my magnetic checker set, but all the pieces are not there. Should I take my aquatic checker set (which float and can be used as a life preserver in case of an emergency), but it has ahole in it. That day the water rocked the boat back and forth, back and forth--and the fish were not bitting all that well, so you have plenty of time to play several good games of checkers. Question for you checker trivia buffs. A very special checker set was designed just for this occasion. In what ways does it differ from a checker set that one would use to play on land? (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

Checker players have been known over the years as being very very frugal when it comes to checkers at least. For Christmas 1993 our library gave out a beautiful Norman Rockwell checker print entitled "Last Move" to many of our friends. One of those dear friends from Ohio wrote back to thank us for our kindness. He said that he had just the right place for it--to cover up a crack in the wall of his home. Ones never knows what their checker memorabilia will come in handy for when in someone elses hands. (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

Checkeristic Trivia" Each year very very old wooden checkerboards are sold for hundreds of dollars each to people that have no interest whatsoever in using them to play checkers. What are they used for by these folks? (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

Checker trivia: click, click , click , click--no more click, click, click , click. Because the material from which checkers were made changed (but the new material never really caught on). What were these so called "silent checkers" made of? (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

Everything in our checker museum has a related checker story that accompanies it. So I give you as part of our checker trivia the story of the--"white gloves", which you will see here. In the 1990's my dear checker friend Tony Kozenski and I ventured into northern Ohio to visit one of the worlds finest treasure troves of checkers to be found anywhere in the world. It was very windy that day and Tony had to hold onto me to keep me from being picked up by the wind and being blown away. After we arrived there they gave us each a pair of "white gloves" to wear along with an escort of guards with guns. Question: where were we visiting that day and what was the purpose of the "white gloves"?

[Mr. Checkers]

The source of many of our checker trivia posts here--"1001 Pieces of Checker Trivia"--Volumes I & II. (cont.)

[Guest]

You appear to be talking to yourself LOL
No one seems interested in you

[Mr. Checkers]

"Checker Trivia" Years before Charles Walker's ICHF was established this city was the proposed site for the "Checker Hall of Fame"?. Think checker snowbirds. (cont.)

[Mr. Checkers]

"Checker Trivia" When you purchase a copy of this comtemporary authors checker book you receive a free set of checkers and a checkerboard. Who is he? (cont.)