Plywood Memories from Gencon to Vegas

 Out trip to Gencon took us up through the Arkansas Delta country, and into the boot of Missouri, across the Big Muddy and on into the sprawling flats of southern Illinois and Indiana. It is a marvel to travel in this part of the country. When people think of the bread baskets of the U.S. their minds always go to the Great Plains, but they forget the never-ending fields of corn that mark this region, the Lowlands and Till Plains of Indiana. Its beautiful in its never ending yield.

We broke camp early in the morning of the 31^st and drove that last few miles up to Indianapolis and over to the convention center. We went to the marshalling yard to get our unloading bill and in short order found ourselves pulling the canvas back from the truck, and hauling boxes, banners and stands into the great hall of the Indiana Convention Center. It was hot in there, as it always is, during set up, but no matter Dakota and I set to unloading and assessing what we were going to need to get set up. It quickly became apparent that are racks were woefully worn down and out. We had to do something.

My primary concern however was flooring, something to soften the concrete on tired feet, so off to a hardware store we went. While there Dakota mapped out his ideas for some new racks, what he wanted, and what he thought it should look like. He gave me a list and off to the Container store we went. By this point Jeremy had joined us, and we all wandered about gathering the gear we needed.

Racks have always been a problem for us. We had smaller budgets and little access in those days. At our first convention, Gencon 2000, we didn’t have anything. The books were laid flat on the table, map hung with some tape on the front table and a banner on the back curtain. We knew that wouldn’t play for the next round so Todd Gray and I sat about making a more lasting display. We took 3 sheets of 4 x 8 ¾ inch plywood and attached them one to the other with little brass hinges. Carefully measuring and cutting strips of loop pile carpet we glued it on the inner face of the plywood, making a beautiful, if simple, covered backdrop. It was perfect because velcro would stick to it. We had posters made with our books on them, glued velcro to the back of them and could put them up and take them down from the carpet face. We could attach lights to the boar too, for better lighting if need should dictate.

It was brilliant and worked beautifully and, to my mind, still the best-looking booth display and backdrop we have ever had. It was so clean and simple, functional, and ridiculously sturdy. It folded up nicely too, one sheet over on the other so nothing would get torn or scratched. Its only real draw back was its weight. Lugging that thing around was crazy. But lug it we did. When we loaded for shows from GTS in Vegas to Pentacon in Fort Wayne, Gencon, or Genghis Con, we did it by loading that monster into the truck first, piling the stock and luggage on its back and hauling it in and out of cons.

Todd and I were so exhausted at one Vegas show that the idea of moving it was mind numbing. We hired some kids in the parking lot, paying them 40 bucks, to haul it in for us.

We used it for 3 or 4 years I think, dozens of cons. After the hard times hit in ’05 and TLG’s staff dwindled to me, managing the beast became difficult if not impossible. I remember it leaning against the house, in the back yard sometime in the fall, when the rains hit. And they hit and I quietly forgot about it. Intentionally? Purposely? Maybe a little bit of both. Either way the boards warped and the carpet popped. It was abandoned after that and eventually was consigned to the burn pile.

I feel bad about it now and again. But then I remember hauling it around and that eases the feeling a little.

We later switched to wire racks, spinners, magazine racks, and hanging banners.  These were so cheap that they didn’t take the weight of the books and became lopsided, bent, twisted. Eventually one blew out of the open bed of the truck one night on the way back from Origins or Gencon and we didn’t notice until we were back home. That was the beginning of the end of those things. The banners too have had their ups and downs, the canvas is never even, sags and folds. We’ve rigged braces from pvc pipe, dowels, and 1 x 2 boards. It all ends the same. It looks good for a short while, but doesn’t weather well.

After that we bought the racks we have now and have had for many years. They are tall, fairly stout racks but long sense battered half to death. Wires broke, legs twisted, just tired and worn. The backdrop has enjoyed new collapsable banners, but these cheap things break at the nearest opportunity, or give up the banner so it lazily folds over itself and hangs as if defeated in a game it never wanted to play.

I like the look, but its time for something new for sure.

That new began during set up yesterday at this Gencon 2024. New shelving and displays, lights and fixtures, just the beginning of the overhaul. We are talking about digital displays. Projectors casting rotating images on screens, in place of banners and backdrops. All very exciting and makes me wonder what the old plywood backdrop would think.