Mentoring is a fairly new concept to me.   But in the years since Bill & I have dabbled in the mysterious and complicated world of old glass pressed in America between about 1850 and 1910, we have experienced many of the finest examples of that concept.  We own approximately 195 books about EAPG. And while they tell us about EAPG, none of them really help us know EAPG.
     What we KNOW about EAPG, we have learned at the feet of some wonderful mentors who probably never understood or even have known about the legacy they have left to us.   
      Our first experience was with a fellow Okie named Owen Davis.  I literally invaded his and Sue’s home one day after he told me on the phone that he didn’t let just anyone view his collection.  The iron bars on the house windows I saw when I went there anyway backed him up on that!  He finally realized I was
serious about wanting to learn and our relationship over the remaining years of his life was an amazing series of give and take.  He gave and I took.  Beginning with identifying the first 3 little pieces of old glass we ever found (Cord Drapery wines), he walked us through reproductions, colors, stoppers, ad infinitum as long as we would sit still to learn.
     About that time, Bill heard about a new book about old glass and wrote to the authors to get me an autographed copy for my birthday.  We ‘met’ over the phone when I called to ask them a question and right away they invited us to come to their home when next we were in Pennsylvania! 
      Owen had told us about a big glass show “Back East” where we could learn even more.  And so we went to Harrisburg in 1993.  OH MY GOSH!!!!!
(roughly the equivalent reaction of everyone who walks through those doors for the first time)!!!  We were blown away!  At the very first visit, so many of the sellers in the 350 bright and shining booths generously spent time letting us touch & hold their glass and telling us bits of unwritten information - Ann Hargrave, Lil and Bud Marchant, Chris and Rena Reynolds, Helen Goldberg, Lu Dodemont & Jack Senander, Tom & Glen, Grace Guido, Joyce Johnston, Jim Burns, Alice and John
Ahlfeld, Lois & Don Bailey, Rick & Ricki Thompson, Linda & Walt Adams, Andy & Alan Koppel, Bob & Jo Sanford, Hazel Rawls, some kooky guys named Bill & Darryl....... way too many to name here.  We were nobodys to them and yet they patiently answered our questions by the gillions.   
      On the way to THE SHOW, we accepted the invitation to visit the 1750’s home of the couple who had written that book that intrigued us so - and when we drove up, Mr. John Welker literally ran out of the house with arms open wide to welcome
us - really - to the world of Pattern Glass via their home.  We went for a few minutes and stayed for 8 hours that day at his and Elizabeth’s insistence. One of Mr. Welker’s joys was showing us the boxes of 3 x 5 cards they used in writing their literary masterpiece, Pressed Glass in America. They had used those cards because they had no computer. We recognized their kitchen window full of glass as the subject of the photo on the cover of their book jacket!
       Of course in 1994 when dear Bill Reidenbach called to ask us
to get involved in forming a new club, the EAPG Society, we flew to Harrisburg and joined 'con mucho gusto'!
      And not all our Mentors have been at the Shows or in the Society - Dori Miles has been our generous, non-resident helper through many, many years - always willing to share more than I ever thought anyone could possibly know about pattern glass.
     Here’s the best way to Thank them. We who have learned from THEM (whoever our Mentors have been) have the EAPG ‘keys to the kingdom’. Pattern Glass is not ours to keep. It is only ours to enjoy and pass on. And so in honor of these & other icons of the EAPG world, we put forth extraordinary energy to do just that.
For our part, we've created a Pattern Glass School to encourage and enrich
students of Early American Pattern Glass 1850-1910.
  All you have to do is click on the Blackboard and enjoy learning!