~ Ron & Vickie Smith

My mentor would be a lady whom I met in an antique store in 1990. That wonderful lady was Winnie Brim. I was looking at a damaged piece and she said, "You don't want that." We talked about carnival for a bit and then she invited an absolute stranger to her home. I followed her to her home and, when I went in, I was in awe. There was carnival on the wall, water and punch sets everywhere, and funeral vases sitting on the floor. I was speechless.

Winnie told me not to be afraid to pick something up and look at it so the first thing I did pick up was a smoke Fashion ruffled compote. I handled lots of carnival that day.

Winnie gave me all the Marion Hartung and Sherman Hand books she had for me to take home and study and I did. She took me to the monthly meeting of the Air Capital Club at the home of Don Kime and Roland Kuhn and introduced a perfect stranger into another home just filled with fantastic glass. The members there were great. I was hooked!

Winnie sold her collection in a Mickey Reichel auction in 2006 and has since passed away. Joyce Seale acquired my favorite piece of Winnie's. It was that smoke Fashion compote she let me hold 26 years ago. We got it back at Joyce's auction later on.

I will never forget Winnie and think fondly of her every time I gaze up to the Fashion compote now sitting on a shelf in our home."

~Ron & Vickie Smith