Windy City Pulp and Paper 2019
Windy City Pulp and Paper is a small book collecting convention dedicated to the classic pulps of the 20's, 30's and 40's. This year it was held over the weekend of April 12-14, 2019 at the Westin Yorktown Lombard, the same hotel that hosts Windycon.
When I first saw publicity materials for it, I thought it would be a convention for bibliophiles. However, the first several years I tried to get into its dealers' room, either its dates conflicted with another convention we were doing, or it had filled up by the time another convention the same weekend finally told us we were on their waitlist instead of getting into their dealers' room. So when it finally had dates that didn't conflict with anything else we might want to do, I paid for my tables and memberships as soon as I had the money available.
Because it was small and unknown, and had only limited Thursday load-in hours late in the evening, we decided to hold down our expenses by not driving up on Wednesday. Instead we got up early on Thursday morning and headed north. This was something of a gamble, since bad enough traffic would mean we'd arrive so late we'd have no time to check into our hotel before we needed to be at the main hotel to start loading in.
Fortunately, traffic was good, even in the Jane Byrne Interchange, and we made good time to the hotel. We were supposed to have had a handicap accessible room, but as a result of some kind of accident that had rendered a number of rooms uninhabitable without extensive repairs, they didn't have one available. So they put us in a mini-suite to compensate, but while we did have more space, we didn't have certain features such as the raised toilet seat which would've made our stay a lot easier.
Once we'd gotten our belongings into the hotel, we had supper before heading over to the main hotel to unload. When we first got started loading in, the unseasonably warm weather made it a pleasant task. But soon the skies darkened to the west, and with each load it became clearer that it was only a matter of time before the storms would hit. I tried to carry in as fast as I could, but once the rain started pouring, the hotel staff closed the roll-up door. At that point, all I could do was rearrange our load so it would be stable, and try to arrange the merchandise we had managed to get into the dealers' room.
With nothing more to be done, we headed back to our hotel to finish eating supper. Then I did a little writing before we turned in for the night.
On Friday we got up early to get the hotel's complimentary breakfast before we headed over to the main hotel to finish loading in and setting up. This time the staff wouldn't open the roll-up door, whether because of the colder weather or because of some administrative constraint, so I had to wrestle every load through the regular doors, which added a fair amount of time to the process. As a result, we weren't completely ready when the doors opened for the general membership.
Once we did get organized, we started making sales, but they were much smaller than I'd hoped for. It soon became obvious that I'd made a fundamental misapprehension about the convention -- instead of being for bibliophiles, it was for collectors in a fairly narrow niche, and our books really didn't fall into it. By the end of the day, we couldn't have taken in more than thirty or forty dollars.
When the doors closed, we headed back to our hotel to take it easy for the night. We had supper, and I soaked my aching feet in hot water before turning in for the night.
On Saturday we headed down to the hotel's complimentary breakfast, feeling much less happy about our situation. Then we headed over to the main hotel to get our tables uncovered and try to salvage the situation as best we could. I did get a little time to walk around the hall and look at some of the other dealers' offerings before the doors opened. There were some books I remembered from my childhood that I really would've loved to acquire, but given our precarious financial situation, it wasn't possible.
Sales remained stubbornly slow all day long, and it was clear this convention was not a good fit for us. We weren't the only ones -- the guy by the wall packed all his merchandise and just plain left, apparently deciding he didn't want to spend the money for another hotel night.
When the dealers' room closed, we checked out the con suite. However, they just had a few minimal snacks and no meaningful socializing going on, so there was no reason to hang out any further. We chatted a little just to be social, then headed back to our hotel room for a real supper. Then we relaxed and wound down before turning in for the night.
On Sunday we woke up to an unseasonably late snowstorm hamstering away. We ate a quick breakfast, then packed up our belongings to get them out to the van so we could get checked out. As always with Chicago conventions, we wanted to be down to Merrillville by evening and avoid the Monday morning rush hour crunch. However, the lousy sales meant that our hotel cost would have to stay on the credit card, putting us in a bind for the following month's convention.
Then we drove through the heavy snow to the main hotel. At least once we got inside, we could hang up our snow-covered coats and get the tables uncovered. I did a little more looking around, but I was feeling pretty miserable about the whole affair.
We made a few sales, but we had to start packing the books on the shelving unit and in the spinner rack about an hour before closing time. That may have discouraged buyers, but we needed to get loaded out as quickly as possible if we were going to get to Merrillville at anything resembling a reasonable hour.
At least the snow had stopped by the time we started loading out. However, we still had a mess of wet, slushy snow on the sidewalk beside the hotel, which made the process of loading out thoroughly nasty. I took the first loads out by myself, but later several con staff members pitched in and handed books up to me, which speeded up the process. Still, I ended up with my shoes and socks sopping wet, which made for a miserable drive down to Merrillville and our hotel for the night.
I carried in the essentials and parked the van, and then stripped off my socks and shoes. I was very glad I'd packed several extra pairs of socks, because it felt absolutely great to be able to put on a clean, dry pair and then my slippers. We had supper and relaxed with our feet elevated until time for bed.
On Monday we got up and had the hotel's complimentary breakfast. Then we carried our belongings back out to the hotel and hit the road south. We got home in good time, but on the way down to the free community meal in Greenwood, we got two awful pieces of news -- first, that Gene Wolfe had died, and second, that the roof of Notre Dame de Paris was burning. It was a sad ending for a very disappointing convention.
Copyright 2019 by Leigh Kimmel
Permission is granted for reproduction in fanzines and other non-profit fannish publications.
For permission to quote or reprint in other venues, contact Leigh Kimmel
Last updated July 21, 2019.