Saga of a Card Shop

Continuing our tradition of interesting talks by our own Members, Maria DelSignore provided a wonderful set of tid-bits of her years running 'Maria's Card Shop' on Grand Island. She relived the saga of the explosion of interest in Beanie Babies with the background dealing with (and 'sometimes' profiting from) the quirks of the Beanie Baby inventor / promoter. Those of us that have never been 'behind the cash register' of a small retail store were fascinated by her description of running a small shop that she occasionally had to dash away from, to take care of home emergencies. But the highlight of the morning lecture was her unfolding and reminding us of her MOST NOTEWORTHY ACCOMPLISHMENT - the Grand Island scenes Afghan that she developed and had produced. Many of us have one tucked away, or gave one to out-of-town kids to remind them of their hometown! Of course, she also topped all of us who occasionally drop stories about our kids living 100's to a few 1000 miles away, as she described her visits to a daughter in Ireland, before traveling on to see relatives in Italy! Thanks, Maria, for a great description of segments of your life.