Thursday, June 17th, 1999
We arrived late on Thursday night, a little restless after driving for 2 straight days in the pouring rain. It was exciting though to settle into my tiny room, thinking that this would be Cabbage Patch Kid headquarters for the next three days. After months of planning, the big day was right around the corner! After unpacking and arranging my Kids, my parents and I got back into the car and made our way to Pat & Joe Prosey's place in Leonardtown, MD which was about a 10 minute drive from our hotel at Lexington Park.
After a few wrong turns, we finally found The Magical Crystal Valley, the beautiful log cabin hidden amounts the trees. Joe was at the door waving for us to come in. He led us into a little room full of CPKs and memorabilia. After looking through the Summer Adventure kits, Joe has a little twinkle in his eye, and a sneaky grin on his face. It was late, but he asked if we wanted to take a peek at the museum. Of course we did! The entrance to the museum was through the tiny room we were standing in, so he told us to close our eyes and walk through the door. We were in a dark room, and all of a sudden, the lights went on and before us was the most fantastic display of Cabbage Patch Kids that I have ever seen! I honestly felt like a kid in a candy store. The museum is set up on one side there is all the vinyl faced babies displayed in order from 1983 all the way up to the present Mattel Kids. The other side was all original Soft Sculptured kids representing just about every year and edition ever made.
I was truly amazed by what was before me - everything about the museum was magical - the way the kids were set up, the Cabbage Patch sparkling Christmas tree, a CPK Superman in the telephone booth, the Cabbage Patch Clubhouse. I knew everyone else would feel the same way!
After visiting the museum for about 45 minutes, we decided to call it an evening an head back to the hotel. We were all tired after driving 6 hours that day.
Friday June 18th, 1999
The next morning we headed over to the local IHOP, apparently a popular place in the US..but not in my native Canada. We had left a message with the hotel that if anyone arrived to send them there. Soon after ordering, we met up with Dixie McLaughlin, who joined us for breakfast. It was nice to finally put a face to a voice. We had been talking back and forth for months leading up to the gathering. After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel lobby to wait for the rest of the people. Slowly people started arriving. We all congregated in the lobby because the hotel manager wouldn't release hotel rooms until 2:30pm.
By 4pm about 25 virtual strangers became friends. Also at 4pm, I FINALLY met my roommate - Jennifer Flavell. Jennifer and I had been talking back and forth since last October, but because she was in Las Vegas and me in Toronto - a meeting before hand was impossible! It was fantastic to finally meet everyone in person that I had been communicating through e-mail and by phone.
At 5:30pm, we headed over to The Western Steer, an all you can eat Buffet down the road. We had formal introductions: I made everyone stood up to announce their name, eBay nickname and why they collected Cabbage Patch Kids. At this dinner, we all met Pat & Joe Prosey, as well as Linda Loggins, National Sales Director at OAA, and Julie Edwards, Official CPK Club coordinator. We also met everyone's favorite Kids including the famous KEVIN and Kathie Foreman's kid ILKA ALECIA. I brought KALEB, my red haired Japanese boy.
There was a gathering AFTERHOURS party in my little hotel room, where we all exchanged photo albums, taught each other CPK hairdressing techniques, did some serious CPK chatting and enjoyed Carrie Conover's famous CPK jello shooters -YUM!
Saturday, June 19th, 1999
Saturday morning we were bleary eyed, but managed to assemble in the breakfast room by 8:30am. We took this opportunity to take as many CPK photos as we could, as we all selected one (or in my case - TWO) of our most special Kids to bring to Magical Crystal Valley. CHRISTIANA and CARY came with me.
We all arrived at Magical Crystal Valley a little late (my fault!), but raring to go! We quickly broke off into two groups. One group was to go on a hayride through the Prosey's historical farm acres while the other group (my group) gathering in the little room off the museum for a OAA information session. In this session, Linda & Julie from OAA introduced the 1999 Blue Creek babies, and quizzed us on Cabbage Patch vocabulary. We also were given an opportunity to see the brand new Cabbage Patch video to be released this fall.
After the OAA information session we went for a hay ride across Pat & Joe's property. Some of the barns dated back to the early 1900's! We stopped by a little pond at the back of the property for a little fishing. Each Kid was a fishing pole and a gummy fish. My little CARY decided he was too impatient for normal fishing so he made a go at spear fishing with a little help from Linda Loggins :)
Back at the museum, when both activities were done, we were given opportunity to adopt one of the 1999 Blue Creek edition Kids. I adopted KASEY GAREY - a beautiful little girl with red ponytails, green eyes and freckles.
After lunch, Joe finally opened the doors to the museum! He lead us all in in the dark and managed to get all 35 of us in the lobby. As soon as we were all assembled in, he turned on the lights, and the Cabbage Patch Dreams album began. It was obvious that everyone felt the same way I did, when I was given the tour the night before. This time I REALLY got a chance to carefully look around at all the Kids. I swear - you could go into Magic Crystal Valley numerous times and still see something different each time! We spent a good hour or so looking around and pointing out things to one another. After we were done, Linda held a draw for great CPK prizes such as T-shirts, watches, and other paraphernalia. Everyone was a winner :)
A sea of Coleco Cabbage Patch Kids
We had a nice afternoon break for a few hours, when many headed back to the hotel and down to the pool. I welcomed the brief rest, but soon enough, it was back to Magical Crystal Valley for the evening portion of our Gathering. We started with a CPK auction, with items graciously donated by the Proseys. We all found something we liked and enjoyed the bidding too - after all we were all in eBay withdrawal!! After the auction was over, we enjoyed a yummy BBQ and some time to chat with one another. Some people brought Kids to trade and sell too after dinner was over.
Again, the party continued in Jennifer and my room Saturday night. We had people camped outside our door with CPKs MIB, CPK clothing and other CPK related merchandise to trade or sell. Inside our room, people were hanging out on the bed, trading photo albums, looking at each others Kids and talking to their new CPK friends. We had so much fun, we didn't want the evening to ever end!
Sunday, June 20th, 1999
Sunday morning was a bit of a disappointment. The rain had returned, which hampered our plans to lay a sidewalk by the CPK statue outside the museum. We were going to put everyone's names in the wet cement, but it was really pouring down, so instead everyone went back into the museum for another look at the magnificent collection of over 4,000 Kids. Around 11am, we finalized the address list and said our good- byes.
It was a great weekend thanks to our wonderful hosts Pat & Joe Prosey and his staff. They went beyond the call of duty to make sure everyone was happy. I'd also like to thank Linda Loggins and Julie Edwards for taking time out of their busy schedules to stop by and learn about our Coleco community. They came away from the gathering with the realization that there IS a community out there that appreciates and truly loves the Coleco kids. In turn, we all came away from the weekend for a great appreciation for the original CPKs.
Finally, thank you to everyone who attended the gathering. I enjoyed meeting each and every one of you! I hope to see you all next June at Babyland General for the Summer Adventure 2000!
Leah Salt, CPK Summer Adventure Co-ordinator