It is now August, so I guess it’s time for those members in the area to start thinking about the Fall 2009 regional meeting.
We decided at the last meeting in April (in Austin) that this one would be held in Dallas.
I propose Saturday, October 17, for this meeting. (For those who might be interested, the Texas State Fair will be open then, so if you want to come a day earlier or later and take in the Fair, by all means consider it as an option. There is a bit of good heraldry on the Fair grounds, though mostly of the historical coats of arms of the area: Spain, France, Mexico, Texas, the Conferate States, and the United States.)
We have several options for activities, in addition to sitting about discussing heraldry and the American Heraldry Society: I have a videotape of the discussion on heraldry and brief tour of his heraldic garden by Sir Conrad Swan, quondum Garter King of Arms, that was shown at the 1996 International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences; I’ve got a copy of the DVD "A Call to Arms!" that the Royald Heraldry Society of Canada has created to help educate Canadians about heraldry; and, of course, there’s my heraldic library in which to play. Or we could skip all that and take an heraldic tour of downtown Dallas. (I’m not saying that there’s a _lot_ of heraldry there, but there is some, including a couple of that are, or at least were to me, unexpected.)
In any case, it’s time to start thinking about our fall meeting. Please let me know if October 17 is (or is not) a good date for you, if there are any particular activities you’d like to participate in, etc. I’m assuming that we’ll do it similarly to the previous regional meeting, start about noon with a good lunch, and go from there, but I’m pretty flexible so we can modify plans to include as many AHS people as possible.
David
The 17th works well for me and as far as the program goes, I’m willing to go along with whatever the group wants.
Hugh Brady;70860 wrote:
The 17th works well for me and as far as the program goes, I’m willing to go along with whatever the group wants.
Well, Hugh, so far it’s just you and me, so maybe we can "arm<strike>" wrestle to decide! (I know, bad joke, but it’s still only Monday morning, and I’m really not quite awake yet.)
Seriously folks, is no one else interested in attending? I mean, I know New Mexico might be a bit of a drive, but most of Texas, Louisiana, much of Arkansas, and Oklahoma are all within a decent drive of Dallas. And we so seldom get the opportunity in this part of the country to meet with others who share our interest in heraldry.
So I will ask again ...
Who else might be interested in attending this regional get-together?
David</strike>
I’d definitely like to attend, but October is always a bad month what with family birthdays, fall festivals at the schools, etc. Until I get a clearer picture of what my calendar would be, I can’t commit.
Charles Glass;71183 wrote:
I’d definitely like to attend, but October is always a bad month what with family birthdays, fall festivals at the schools, etc. Until I get a clearer picture of what my calendar would be, I can’t commit.
Thank you for your response, Charles. I do hope that your schedule will be sufficiently clear that you’ll be able to attend, but I entirely understand if you’ll be too busy to be able to make it.
I’m still hoping for others to weigh in with their interest; it’s awfully hard to plan for an event without any idea of how many people are even interested in attending. Really, if it’s just going to be Hugh and myself, we live close enough that we could just pick between us any weekend to get together. What I and, I believe, he, are hoping for is for more of our membership in the region to be able to get the chance to meet face-to-face and share our mutual interest in heraldry.
David
I, too, have thought that since we all live in the Dallas area, at least the three of us could work out a time to meet somewhere for a few hours.
Charles Glass;71276 wrote:
I, too, have thought that since we all live in the Dallas area, at least the three of us could work out a time to meet somewhere for a few hours.
If you want to have a Dallas-area get-together for whatever reason at any time, Charles, I’m sure we could work something out, even on fairly short notice. I can’t speak for anyone else in the area, but I can talk about (and listen to others talk about) heraldry for hours and hours. And there’s plenty of ways we could meet: for lunch at one restaurant or another in the metroplex; get together at the Dallas Public Library downtown (the Genealogy section has a lot of good heraldry books, and there’s also a bit of heraldry downtown to go see). There’s no doubt others that I’m not thinking of this morning.
If you ever want to plan something like this off-list, feel free to email me at my email address below.
David
Sorry, I never noticed the posting. I am very interested, but all of sudden, October is getting filled for me. The weekend of Oct 17 & 18 is the worst for me :(
Kelisli;71446 wrote:
Sorry, I never noticed the posting. I am very interested, but all of sudden, October is getting filled for me. The weekend of Oct 17 & 18 is the worst for me :(
Well, this is becoming a little more frustrating than I had thought it would be.
Would Saturday, October 24, work better for everyone than October 17? Or October 10? I’ve got a little flexibility in October, and am more than willing to try to accommodate as many folks as possible.
Unfortunately, I don’t have that same flexibility in November, so moving the meeting to a Saturday in November won’t work for me. It would be very awkward to try to host a meeting that I wouldn’t be able to attend, don’t you know? ;-^)
Anyway, I’d really like to try to make this happen, and I’d really like for as many area members to be able to attend as possible. Please let me know your thoughts and available dates and I’ll do my best to allow for the greatest attendance.
David
the 24th works for me.
The 24th would be better for me, but won’t be certain until later on this month. I will let you know for sure ASAP. However, please don’t change the date just to accommodate me.
But why shouldn’t we change the date to accommodate you, if either date is just as good for the rest of us and the later date may be better for you?
Seriously, everyone, who’s likely to be able to make it on October 17, and who on October 24? (Please feel free to reply to the thread here or to email me directly. I’ll get your preference either way.) It’s getting close enough that we probably ought to finalize a date in the very near future.
David
I can make it either Saturday.
Well, as time is getting close to finalize things, and seeing that it’s more likely that a greater number of people may be able to attend on October 25, let’s just go ahead and calendar this regional get-together for Saturday, October 25, beginning at 12:00 noon. (If you get here earlier than that, that’s fine, I’ll be home all day! :D) The only downside to that day instead of the 17th is that the State Fair will have closed. But I don’t know how much of a draw that would have been anyway, so I guess we’ll just have to cope. ;-^)
Following in Hugh’s footsteps, I’ll provide lunch for all attendees.
We will meet at my house, 1014 Georgeland Drive, Duncanville, TX 75116. Duncanville is on the southwest corner of Dallas.
It’s easy enough to find, since I’m right off of I-20.
Directions: Take your best route to I-20. (If you are coming up from the south, this usually means I-45 or I-35E. I don’t know of anyone coming down from the north, but if you are, usually I-35E to Loop 12 South to Spur 408 to I-20 eastbound is the shortest; otherwise, I-35E to US67 south to I-20 westbound.) From US-67 and points east (e.g., I-35, I-45), get onto westbound I-20 (towards Fort Worth). After you pass US-67, the third exit is Cedar Ridge Drive. Take that exit. You end up having to turn left onto the service road. At that point it’s three lanes: the left lane is for eastbound traffic, the other two are westbound. Get in the left westbound lane. Turn left onto Cedar Ridge and stay in the left lane. You’ll cross over I-20, pass the light for the eastbound service road, and then you want to take the very next possible left turn (it’s almost immediately after the turn for the service road, and across from the first entrance into the RaceTrac gas station). You’ll go down a hill one block; take the very first street to the right. That’s Georgeland Drive. Turn into the very first driveway on the left. (You won’t see the house until you are at the driveway; it’s a heavily wooded lot.) If what you’re looking at is a two-story green house with the numbers 1014 to the right of the garage door, you’re there!
The driveway has a bit of a dip where it meets Georgeland; if you have a car with low clearance longer than a compact, you’ll want to take the driveway at a slight angle to avoid dragging your tailpipe on the tarmac. (We had a lot of fun getting my father’s SUV with towed 18 foot trailer in here one time several years ago!)
The driveway is a double-wide; there’s room for six cars, three sets of two side-by-side, though I don’t think we’ll have that many here that day.
Questions? Comments? Dietary restrictions? Special preferences for drinks? Be sure to let me know.
I look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it on October 24!
David
I just spoke to my wife, and it looks like the 24th will work for me too. I’ll be coming in from the McKinney area. Looking forward to meeting everyone!
=Jared
motx72;72000 wrote:
I just spoke to my wife, and it looks like the 24th will work for me too. I’ll be coming in from the McKinney area. Looking forward to meeting everyone!
Cool! We’ll be happy to have you!
From McKinney, probably the shortest way is to come down US-75, take Woodall Rogers (though it’s not called on the signs; I think it’s Spur 366. In any case, it’s the shortcut across the north side of downtown Dallas to I-35E) to I-35, and if you just stay in the right lane from then on, it’ll take you right down I-35 and US-67 to become the exit-only lane for I-20 westbound.
We look forward to seeing you there!
David