2007 Huntsville, Ala. ALPCA Convention, Part 1

There's a first time for everything, and June 2007 marked the time of my first ALPCA convention. This year's convention was held in Huntsville, Alabama; the self-proclaimed "rocket city" of America.

Given how so many other details of my life seemed up in the air at the moment fresh out of college, I was a bit hesitant about committing to the convention...not sending in the registration form until the week before deadline...but with nothing else blocking my itinerary and with an offer by a friend of mine to share the commute, I bit.

After an ample but not extremely-lengthy drive (in which an hour was gained by switching time zones), we arrived in Huntsville around four in the afternoon. I wasn't really sure what to expect: I had never had any reason to go to Alabama before in my life, and was pessimistically expecting the kind of state Neil Young warned about; although Huntsville's association with space and rocket research seemed redeeming. One thing that wasn't totally unexpected, however, was the weather: It was absolutely roasting and humid, and the fact that my friend's car had a dysfunctional air conditioner and an inoperable driver's side window did not improve matters in the slightest.

Nevertheless, arrive we did, and even though the actual convention was still two days away some collectors had already set up makeshift trade-box displays in the Holiday Inn parking lot. There wasn't much activity, though, either in the parking lot or in the streets: Much of the Huntsville city grid was eerily devoid of pedestrians or traffic. A walk to and fro downtown with Joe Sallmen (who insisted on photographing each and every license plate, historical marker, and tiger decal in sight) made me realize that Morgantown or even Princeton, West Virginia was a lot busier than this. I'm not a big fan of county coding (since it complicates variation cutoff point tracking to the nth degree), but it was apparent that Madison County was number 47: Practically all the (few) cars that scooted down the city streets had license plates bearing those two digits.

A strangely-named store spotted on the outskirts of Huntsville: "Mock Electronics?"

After a dinner at a seedy Mexican restaurant whose claustrophobic decor seemed steadfastly unchanged since the sixties, we checked into our hotel. This Holiday Inn was originally a Hilton, and was also the spot where Elvis Presley and his entourage stayed overnight in 1975...as a photo display in the lobby proudly proclaimed.

Day Zero

The actual convention was still a day away, but the pace picked up a bit on Tuesday with the "informal" meet-and-greet in the Von Braun convention center parking lot. Fortunately the parking lot this year was a concrete-covered parking garage, lessening at least some of the swealtering heat's impact on my sanity. Plenty of collectors were showing up by this point, and I made a number of noteworthy finds myself.

One guy had brought a trailer along, filled to the brim with plates priced at a dollar each. The vast majority of the plates in question were undesirable garbage (such as leftover Iowa and Minnesota non-passengers from the 1970s), but I did score a handful of cheap birthyear-run finds for my trouble. I scored a couple of graphic Louisiana plates from the early '90s featuring a sticker well in the left rather than right-hand corner from a seller who obviously didn't know what variations he had on his hands, and almost scored my ALPCA membership number on a Maine lobster plate...except that the number turned out to be 12240 W, a digit off! I even sold a handful of my own plates, including a couple of horrible North Carolina First in Flights with cracked sheeting that I had marked down to 33 cents apiece. Some people will buy anything, I suppose.

Lunch was hard to find: Practically every restaurant nearby was closed at the time a friend and I got together for the purpose around 2 in the afternoon, and remained closed until dinnertime. The Huntsville/Madison County Dining Guide was less than helpful, stooping to listing fine establishments as Burger King and McDonald's to fill the space. We did eventually find a sandwich place open that was fairly decent, however, and looked forward to the following day.

Day One

The view of the convention center, outside and in. No, we weren't in the arena, although there would have undoubtedly been even more room in there!

Wednesday was perhaps the only day I had the luxury of sleeping in late...although since one of my roommates was busy in the early morning hours getting up to prepare his display, I didn't make much use of it. After what seemed like an infinite wait, the actual convention began. I entered the hall...basically arranged in the same way as any regional meet, but much larger in size...and started to dig in. Among my finds were a nice natural 1985 Colorado passenger and a Wisconsin license plate, number RA 1460 (Too bad it wasn't 500 pairs earlier...then the number would have started with "Q!"). I also found a nice '85 Manitoba I wanted...although the stubborn seller wouldn't sell it except as part of an expensive run with dozens of other plates. One man offered to buy my entire trade box...until realizing that my "three for a dollar" message pertained to plates following the piece of dividing paper only. I rephrased the message afterwards to reduce confusion.

1907-08 and 1909 West Virginia porcelains from the Jim Fox collection. The number of registrations at the time was roughly 1000 at most, and to say these are rare plates is putting it mildly. I'd need to win the lottery first before being able to afford these...

One seller had an unusual West Virginia 1984 validation sticker on hand...which was mysteriously blue in color, instead of the usual brown (although I didn't buy it since I figured it would get either lost or blown away). I worked my way around roughly half the convention hall...finding quite a few plates I wanted in the process...until my aching legs ordered me to stop. I was so busy finding things, in fact, that I forgot all about lunch and had nurtured quite an appetite by dinner.

Joe Sallmen's "Driving Instruction in Japan" display. Quite intriguing, even though I have no clue what any of the kanji mean.

Speaking of which, the welcome reception was held in early evening back at the hotel. Our orders had been processed beforehand, with the question of "chicken or beef" asked right on the convention registration form. I was a bit nervous...the last time I had been asked "chicken or beef" I ended up with airline food, after all...and unfortunately my premonitions weren't totally off the mark. For such an executive ceremony, the steak seemed to have too much fat and not enough lean, and some of the vegetables wouldn't have looked out of place in an airline food dish. The one neat thing about the ceremony, though, was the motorcycle-sized souvenir plate everyone was given on the spot. If anything, reselling that might be a good way of making up for the cost of the meal!

Day Negative One

Day Zero

Day One