I got up early because I wanted to find a picture that I've been trying to hunt down for the past two years. It's of me at about 2 years old with a Lu-Ray 36s bowl in Sharon Pink upside down on my head with the food running down my face. Every time I go back home to Newell, I try to find this picture that my dad took.

I didn't find it on this trip, but I did come across some great old post cards, four of which are shown below. The first was taken at HLC and says on the bottom: Decorating Shop, Laughlin's No. 5, Newell, W.Va. According to Huxford's, plant 5 was constructed in 1913. I bet this picture was taken not too long after that since the work area looks so new and clean AND bright! Every portion of Homer Laughlin I've been in has been dark. I'd love to find this exact spot at HLC and see what it looks like today. The larger image shows a close up of four of the decorators.

The second picture is of a Fire House and I'm assuming it was located in Newell, but can't be 100% sure since there was no writing on this card. Also, since I know nothing about automobiles and fire trucks, I can't put any kind of date on this.

The back of the third card has hand written in pencil: Homer Laughlin. I showed this to Bill Mackall and asked what the sign VOTE WET (see lower right hand corner) meant. He said it would have been around the time of prohibition.

The last card is titled, "Newell, W.Va. E.M. Knowles' Residence." This may have been the Knowles' residence years ago, but when I was a kid, it was a home for bad boys. Minor offender teenagers (from all across the state, I assume) were brought here to live under supervision. Today it's a funeral home. I went up the road to take a picture of how the house looks today at the same angle, but there is a tree in the way that wasn't there in the past. The third image in the row above is the front view.

Early in the afternoon I went to see Steve Sfakis in East Liverpool. I stopped on the way to pick up the slide film from the day before and was disappointed to find only 1/2 were usable. The camera I was using didn't focus too well with close up shots (mainly backstamps) so I would need to find another camera.

Steve always seems to find the neatest things. One in particular was a Pebbleford mixing bowl in sunburst with decals. These bowls are hard enough to find let alone with a decal treatment. Another great piece was the Edwin M. Knowles large urn. It was in the shape of their backstamp and had a Worlds Fair logo on the bottom (this piece was on display at the convention.)

He gave me a couple of pieces including the Cronin ashtray below. He figures the "V" stands for Victory and probably dates from the end of WWII. I gave him one of the TS&T OvenServe bakers in Pebbleford glazes since he and his wife, Heidi collects Pebbleford. (If you have the book, Fiesta, Lu-Ray and Other Colorware, amost all the Pebbleford shown is from his collection.)

Steve has a nice camera that he let me borrow. I seem to have the worst luck with 35mm cameras! Before leaving I took a quick digital shot of the Chester Bridge as seen from his back yard. We went to Pottery City, my last visit, to take a quick look. I ended up buying more "junk" including a piece of HLC's Kraft Pink.

I went to see Bill Mackall at his store in Chester. I had been there the day before but he wasn't available. His shop is always stocked with nice and unusual pieces including Fiesta and HLC in general.