DOLL CONVENTION IN ORLANDO

.​Doll Convention in Orlando
 
         Pat and I started going to the United Federation of Doll Clubs in Anaheim, CA and we have been at every UFDC Convention since. This year’s (#68) is in Orlando and I am writing this sitting in my room at the Rosen Centre Hotel. Pat is at a seminar learning how to paint doll faces—something she’d done many times herself.
 
         Since going on six TLC Doll Tours since 2014, we have met many of the movers and shakers of the UFDC Conventions. Lynn, our esteemed TLC tour director is a past president of UFDC and still is a learned doll person with plenty of clout. Marshall heads the sales room and he is Lynn’s assistant on the TLC tours. The sales room at UFDC is where more than 120 doll dealers, collectors, etc. display and sell their wares. Dolls, doll-clothes wigs, body parts, stuffed animals, toys, etc. are all for sale in Marshall’s sales room. Pat and I will go there this afternoon.
 
         One of the highlights so far was a live auction by the world famous auction company, Theriault.  This company, headed by an energetic fellow named Stuart, puts on doll auctions throughout the year. This was a collection of mostly German dolls from a collector Theriault discovered. We saw one doll sell for $160,000. Tuesday morning.
 
         Our daughter, Margo, came with us this year. She was curious about all the doll-people we’ve talked about and wanted to check them out. We introduced Margo to many of our friends and she loved being with us and vice versa. Since she is a Montessori-school teacher, she had to leave yesterday as school starts this week. While Margo was with us here she discovered an Italian restaurant called ‘Ciao Italia” which we tried out. Delicious.
 
         Last evening we returned to this same restaurant with our friend, Karen from Ohio. Karen was my bus-mate on our recent TLC doll tour to Italy and Germany— a fascinating woman with an encyclopedic knowledge of dolls, religion, and a world traveller. She is also one of the important people at these UFDC conventions and a delight to be with again last evening.
 
         Our friends, Silvia (from Madrid) and Pat (from Australia) are here and we’re looking forward to seeing more of them. Robyn (from NC) puts on a seminar tomorrow afternoon on wooden dolls from the Continent, which we plan to attend.
 
         This is an amazing show with about one thousand enthusiastic doll people attending. I’m merely an observer but have become fascinated with the people (mostly women), their works, and their delight to share that with others. Pat has collected dolls for our entire 60 years of marriage.  Now she is a doll doctor and loves being at UFDC. I keep discovering new things and new people at these conventions. Next year in Phoenix!