Old cars and barbecue

Coin collectors are not focused solely on numismatics. They have regular lives and widespread interests.

This is especially true during the summer.

Iola, Wis., is getting ready for its annual car show, which starts July 7 and runs through July 9.

How many coin collectors also collect old cars? I do not know, but probably more than you think.

The reason the car show is in Iola is it was one of the many interests of Chet Krause, founder of Numismatic News, is old cars.

Chet invited a half dozen friends to bring their old cars to an Iola Lions Club chicken fry in 1972 so those who came would have something to look at while they ate.

It proved so successful that the chicken fry grew and grew and became a car show.

By the time I arrived in 1978, it was already growing like crazy, a swap area having been added to the show.

I cannot believe I have been a volunteer working at the show for nearly 40 years, but I still look forward to it like I did my first event.

I cook hamburgers on a large gas grill that allows us to prepare 100 at a time.

My team operates two of these grills, so we can produce 200 burgers every 15 or 20 minutes, depending on how long it takes us to put the meat on and take the finished hamburgers off.

Even with those large numbers, we are still small cogs in the wheel.

Over 100,000 people stream through the car show over three days.

There are other teams and other grills cooking food to serve them as well.

If you come to the show and happen to see me in my grease spattered apron and straw hat, say hello.

Better yet, wave but eat plenty of burgers.

That will let me know that I have done some good.

Then I can get back to my numismatic interests and perhaps nurse a sunburn. The grills are outdoors.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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