Trade Shows, Dog Collars and Head Butting…
Trade Shows…they roll into a city, take over the convention center and bring people in from all over the world. If you can think of something…I bet there is a trade show for it. Anything from animals to toys. It can be a wholesalers dream and a royal pain in the ass for bartenders. Typically these people work from sunrise to sunset at these trade shows. When they are over they hit the bar, and they hit it hard literally…
The one trade show that sticks out in my mind was the “Westminster Dog Show” a few years back.. Now some people will argue that it is NOT a trade show. I say it is. On top of the actual dog show there are loads of vendors that set up booths out side of the show and it brings quite the crowd to NYC.
Working at one of the many hotel bars, I had the pleasure of dealing with this one lady who traveled to all the shows selling dog collars. She was quite the artist with them I may say. Well, she strolled into my bar after the second day of the show and she was on a mission. It took me all of two seconds to see that she was going to be my entertainment for the evening. She was not even done her first drink when she started to flirt with this younger man sitting next to her. I could not categorize her as a cougar because he was in his mid 20′s and she was in her mid 40′s. But she was not shy!
After about two bottles of white wine later she begins to slowly fall out of her chair. Now these are high bar stools so it can be painful if you fall out of one of these. The first time she was in mid conversation and in the midst of talking with her hands, she lost her balance, and almost bit it. She regained her balance with a giggle and continued on with her conversation. She was telling us that the women who work some of these booths are lil’ old biddies who will go to blows with each other over the merchandise. The day before she had witnessed two older well to do ladies almost get into a cat fight over a dog collar (note to self: must attend the next dog show, maybe catch a cane fight hahahaha).
She proceeds to tell us that she knew that one of her competitors was breaking into her booth and night and stealing her merchandise. She told us that if she caught her red handed she was not only going to call the cops but give her something to remember her by. Of course we all wanted to know what that was. She tells us that she would “head butt that bitch right into the next trade show”. We were so intrigued by this comment that the guy she was chatting up asked her if she actually knew how to head butt someone. This lady got a grin on her face from ear to ear and began to tell us how to properly head butt someone. She lunged her head back to “show” us how to do it. Maybe it was the copious amounts of wine that she was drinking, or the excitement she had from actually showing a man how to head butt, or the lack of balance she had on the bar stool, she ended up whacking her head on the top of the bar and falling out of her chair.
Thankfully she did not knock herself out. We picked her up off the floor, gave her some ice for her head and announced that none of us would be attempting that any time soon. She had a great sense of humor. She joked the rest of the night over the fact that she “kicked her own ass” LOL!
