One of my favorite things about meeting and talking to people is that each person is a doorway to a very specific set of passions and interests you've never ever seen combined in one person before; and one of my favorite things about friends is that you get to walk through that door and experience their passions with them. And, when it comes to my handsome husband, this past weekend I found myself walking through the doors of Veteran's Memorial into a gymnasium-sized room to a now-familiar sight: a gun show. I am fully aware that this room full of people is a very specific stereotype, sometimes one that is jeered or even feared, and I'd like to show you the humor and the faces of a place like this.
I have been to many gun stores and gun shows since the start of my relationship with Dave, so many that I'm beginning to recognize the dealers' faces as we walk past them. That's no small feat, since all gun shows have at least a hundred displays on folding tables strewn with various products ranging from the small to the exorbitant. Dave spent a lot of time lingering over this particular dealer's variety of old spare parts because of his small personal collection of beautiful World War II rifles he needs to keep in working order. If you're a history buff, especially one for the second world war, this is a fascinating place to be. It's common here to have an interest in all that is World War II, and we passed a pair of men proudly hawking an original SS helmet in excellent condition...yours for only 3 grand. Magazine pouches from the war are common finds, World War II helmets from every country are prominently displayed by those who have them, at least one display case of wonderful old medals with colorful ribbons, and even the occasional jacket from that era. Sometimes you get lucky and stumble across some originally packaged bullets for sale, still with the German print on the box.
The interesting thing about the people who sell their wares here is that they're commonly committed to two other things: their children and their dogs. I couldn't tell you how many well-loved pooches I saw with a leash tied to a display case, keeping their masters company between customers. And many a table had brought their kids to help out for the day. Some of them pressed into a corner of the sales area in a folding chair, hypnotized by the glow of a PSP, but most of them were fairly involved. This little gal to the right was trying to find where her father went off to. At another display one aisle over, their spread of wares was a true family effort. At one end of the table the wife had a display of beautiful hand-beaded jewelry, her head bent over her current project in her lap (because hey, the wives who come with their gun-loving husbands have money, too). Dave bought a good Amish belt from the family, and the seven-year-old jumped at the chance to look for the one that was the right length because of her promised one-dollar commission from mom for the sale. As we walked past the other end of the table sporting gun cases, the father thanked us for our business, his daughter gloating to him about the dollar she had just made.
Gun shows have plenty of their own fair share of crazies, too, and that's why I'm always up for tagging along. Dave will pause at table after table with historical rifles, able to identify the country and caliber at a glance; at the gun show, all the rifles blur together to me and the weird stuff stands out. I watched the little man running this particular table do a sharpness demonstration with some of his far-out weapons, everything from Samurai swords to the Wolverine claws and mace you see depicted on the left. A woman had a self-defense tools stand, and every ten minutes or so, no matter where you were in the room you could hear the sharp crackle of her tazer demonstration; Dave looked longingly into a case filled with oh-my-gosh-expensive night-vision goggles; later we passed a jerky stand that sold every kind of meat except for beef. There's also always one guy selling a really outrageous collection of gun-pride bumper stickers, saying things to the effect of "If you can read this, you are already in my sniper sights."
But the outrageous crazies are far from the norm here. For the most part, the people I have interacted with are down-to-earth guys, good guys who are willing to give you a good price, and smart enough to know the worth of the things they have and stick with their prices. They'll spend time talking with you and are interested in the projects you have and the things you collect or have experience with (not that they're talking to me, but think about the man I married). And they're usually just as interested in buying something from someone wandering around as they are interested in selling their own things. Once Dave brought a rifle to a gun show to sell, and without any advertisement had 3 guys ask his price in the first hour we were there. Depicted here is a family outing to the gun show, a man pushing his young child's stroller with a sign on his gun case letting passersby know he's interested in selling. I also crossed paths often at this particular show with a short scruffy guy toting an old rifle by the stock, the muzzle above his head with a small crude sign advertising: "SELLING. ASK PRICE."
I don't think I will ever tire of going to the gun show with Dave. It's too fun to watch the sparkle in his green eyes when he sees something he really gets excited about. It's too hilarious to read and see the so-crazy-it-must-be-true merchandise for sale at this kind of place. It's too one-of-a-kind for me to ever be bored, because it's not an experience easily replaced by anything else. It's too important for me to remember the limitations of stereotypes by meeting the people lumped into them. And it's just too darn awesome to be able to tell people, "Hey, guess what I did this weekend? I went to a gun show."
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