Catch early flight? No problem

While you were comfortably eating your morning toast and drinking coffee, I was scrambling to catch a 7 a.m. flight out of Appleton to start a journey to the annual Florida United Numismatists show in Orlando.

Now I am not going to complain about having to leave Iola at 5 a.m. to catch my flight.

Are you kidding?

To this Wisconsin boy a few days in the Florida sunshine is just what the doctor ordered, even if I have to work while I am there.

And while it is technically correct to call what I will do in Orlando work, I find catching up with old numismatic friends and acquaintances a great deal of fun.

I won’t even mind listening to any complaints that might come my way. I know I am not perfect, but the Florida weather will help me take it all in stride.

One person I have missed at the show in recent years is founder Robert Hendershott, who died in 2005 at the age of 106.

I attended his 100th birthday party in 1998 after having been invited 20 years before.

That’s optimism.

His optimism was contagious. His energy was boundless. The older I get, I wonder how he did it.

Still it is satisfying remembering the likelihood that numismatics lengthened Hendershott’s life.

When he was in college and trying to be a big man on campus he ran up against a choice: cigarettes or coins. He couldn’t afford both.

Coins won.

That choice probably did not help his image.

But need I say more?

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."