From The Editor

Show Daily, LLC

The only “Who’s Who” guide to Texas’ most important antiques event

ROUND TOP WARRENTON FAYETTEVILLE CARMINE BURTON OLDENBURG & BEYOND

Editor and Publisher Roberto Alvarado

General Manager Natasha Shepherd

Graphic Design Cynthia Casarrubias Bello

Publicity Sean Godfrey

Collaborators Troy Clark Larris Wright Joe Hickey Lou Christine Robert Jr Jehan Medina

News Offi ce and Correspondence 6231 State Hwy 159 Rutersville / La Grange, Texas 78945 WE STAY OPEN LATE Mobile phone: 979-250-1494 | 979-208-9627 Offi ce phone: 979-249-4149 Email: showdaily@gmail.com Website: www.showdailymagazine.com

Join us at the COLLECTORS CLUB, Rutersville Convention Center 6231 State Hwy 159 Rutersville, Texas 78945 Antique, art, folk & art Open all year.

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

I clearly remember the early days of Show Daily’s beginnings. Some people said it was a pretty nutty idea. Well, here we are today, Spring 2022, bringing you issue number 44, twenty-some years later. I guess our hundreds of advertisers and thousands of readers must think the idea wasn’t so bad after all. So, for this issue I will not request another drum roll because it’s business as usual and the news is still exciting. A couple of dear old antiquer friends of mine from Santa Fe N.M., Jim Jeter and Jeff Hengesbaugh liked to regale the beginning of each WHITE HAWK Antique Indian and Ethnographic Art Show in Santa Fe with their rallying declaration “ we’re off to the plunder and the pillage”, while dressed in full authentic cowboy gear, hat, boots, and even furry chaps. Hilarious as they were, these guys were always very serious about what they sought out. Exclusively early old west and frontier relics and Spanish colonial antiquities. Fast forward to this spring issue and see how it has inspired our cover headline and photos. In particular, one of our feature articles, Under the Yum Yum Tree by none other than Lou Christine. It’s the boys under the big oak tree in Stone Meadow field in Warrenton. They appear overnight like the three musketeers. They’re in and out like modern-day Zorros....”here we are to save the day” It’s a must-read story, if you, claim to be a real player in the antiques ‘schtick’. For the last 30 years their rapid in and out tactics to unload their off erings have been enigmatic, to say the least, and probably a best-kept secret as the few who due attend would never reveal the place or time even if they were submitted to water-board torture. On the cover, this spring issue has revealed for the first time their true identity. Don’t you dare miss it. And whatever you do, please don’t tell them you saw it here. I certainly don’t want to lose my preferred customer status with these fine gentlemen. Kooky, funky, and folksy are some of the words that have been used to describe our publication. That may be valid because our readers love it that way. It’s like the stuff they deal in. Quirky repurposed, stylish folk-art. We find beauty in nature’s rocks and even the discarded rusty junk piles. The imagination and creativity meet the hands of the many entrepreneurs and voila.... a work of art is born. Sort of like our Show Daily. No one in our tiny staff has had any formal training in the production of magazines. We have been winging it all these years and to the amazement of the pros... It’s pretty well done. Folk art is produced by artists with no formal art schooling yet we thrive because it’s our passion and love. That’s another great feature written by Lou ....’ It’s RUST Whose Shoulders We Stand On’. page 62. As for me, I’m not getting any younger and like that fun carnival machine that invites you to drop your quarters in and watch as your coins start pushing the other fool’s coins that will hopefully drop into the payout bin...I’m one of those lonesome quarters ready to be claimed by some new owner. Ha; .... What an imagination don’t ya think? In the meantime, have another happy, safe, bountiful, fulfilling shopping experience at the greatest Texas Antiques Extravaganza ever. We love you. R.A.

“Under the Yum Yum Tree?” No!.... Under the Oak Tree

By Lou Christine

If you’re reading this article after March 24th, it’s likely you missed the chuck wagon, a treasure trove of goodies that comes rolling into Warrenton twice a year. Veteran buyers will tell ya, when it comes to scoring, hard-to-find and nifty stuff you probably already missed the “guys under the tree,” who are a savvy threesome who know their goods and the trade. They are Kevin MiConnel, Joe Apeodaca and John Samek. These independents might prefer you to miss them since they have a cadre of serious buyers who keep a keen eye out for the guys under the tree. There’s no signage, no advertising, or dancing bears. You see, while many dealers muster elaborate displays, hunkering down, dealing with the elements, camped in the fields for as long as three weeks, while others pay hefty table and tent fees for exposure or traff ic patterns at some of the hoity-toitier venues, the guys under the tree just show up normally sell out most of what they brought in about three days! For 28 years the arrival of the guys under the tree is greatly anticipated perhaps like the arrival of the Three Kings from the East after the birth of Jesus. Camel-less, these Kings stream in from Pilot Point, Texas, lugging to Warrenton, their own sense of gold, frankincense and myrrh of the day.

Six months at a clip, for almost three decades, Kevin, Joe and John, hit their secret spots and call upon their pickers to retrieve antiques and vintage gems in every form, rather furniture, jewelry, utilitarian or collectors’ items hardly seen anymore, anywhere. The trio have a system, first, the dealers have never been all that interested at making a killing or drawing big crowds. They know they will walk away with a decent profit. Their steady buyers are confident they’ll leave room between their price and what the goods may go for, so a buck can be made at the other end of the deal. Second, other than the trio, nobody knows or sees anything the three will lug to the show. All the goods have long been packed and priced for the past six months back in Pilot Point. There can be as many as 1000 items. Yet their esoteric operation is only known by a chosen few, mostly longtime area dealers and collectors who guard the location and identity of the buys. There’s no tease or earlier posted Internet look-see. Everybody sees what the guys have brought only after it’s taken off the truck. There’s no advertising, no pamphlets, no preshow rumors, just that three guys will show up with strong goods, under the tree, in Blue Bonnet Field around March 22nd.