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admits Roberto. “We’ve always operated without a safety net and in the early days, one slip, one missed issue, one of anything negative, and we were out of business, yet we proved to all we could swim upstream.

Roberto says, “Getting good help has always been a challenge. You don’t find too many people who can take off or dedicate a couple of weeks a year trudging the fields, talking to dealers while selling ads considering the small population living here.”

people get around, find what they’re looking for.” Thus Show Daily was born at the turn of the Century.

Nevertheless, Show Daily under the guidance of Suzy and Roberto not only prevailed but also flourished. A little over three years ago, Roberto lost his Suzy, at 50, who was the glue, the hinge, A&A Glass Inc. Houston 1979 the workhorse and voice of reason. It was devastating for Roberto losing his wife, his best friend and the greatest business partner one could wish for.

“There were a lot of doubters,” Roberto says. “Howz, some Mexican and his lady friend from Vermont going to relate to the local folk of Fayette County?” was commonly lipped. Other cynics cropped up for a myriad of reasons. In those days the couple were based out of Guadalajara and the schlep north of the border was challenging in many ways, including locally printing a then small magazine in Mexico in English no less. Even many of Suzy and Roberto’s close friends doubted they could pull it off. Further challenges arose when trying to explain to folks that, hey, they needed to pay for their ads upfront, and that the couple would be back in six months from Mexico with folks’ ads displayed in the next edition of Show Daily. Too often they heard, “Sure, right, like you’re really going to return with my ad in that book of yours?”

Well it happened, and it has continued to happen consistently and continuously for all this time. Suzy and Roberto produced this fine magazine filled with in-depth articles associated with the trade, schedules and glossaries of all the events taking place at each show, along with tasty tidbits composed by their talented cadre of writers. “It’s always been tough going,”

Roberto gathered the reins and assembled what human resources he could, to put together the next number of issues and prove to the naysayers that Show Daily was more than a pretty face and a great cover. More than anything he has done this for our Suzy, strongly sensing she is looking down and checking on us all to keep the Show Daily experiment alive.

He frankly states he’s not sure what to do these days. Roberto’s in his 70s and has had a number of health challenges. He could walk away with the money that has been made. Show Daily’s healthy continuance is what he’s concerned about. He would like to hand it off, but he wants to place it in secure hands, hands that would manifest the same care for the show and the dealers while the stories remain positive and informative. He genuinely desires someone local, who speaks the lingo and has the outstanding skills and courage to run the world’s very best Antique Show magazine, Show Daily (a.k.a. “THE BOOK.”) □

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