This past weekend I went to the Arundel Burning book signing. It was kind of sad, because there were about five people there for it. It was an interesting trip though, as I got to meet the owners for the first time and some very interesting regulars. Paul and Anne, who go to the club every night of the week, told me that they were very close to Manny and Dino, the Club’s previous owners. They also told me that they stopped going for a while when the club was sold but recently started coming back when they realized how nice the new owners actually were. I also learned a lot from Paul about the history of the club, and I agree with Katie, he will be a wonderful candidate for the oral history. It was sad to learn from the couple that a lot of the people in the community who had been regulars of the club for years stopped coming for two reasons. One of the reasons is that the owners are not from the United States, which a lot of the older folks have a problem with, for whatever reason. Another reason is because a girl who used to work there was a horrible person. She stole almost 1,000 dollars and a Keno machine from the owners who gave her a free place to live and then when they caught her, she told community members and old regulars a lot of bad and untrue rumors about the couple.

This coming weekend, Hillman, Missy, Natalie, and I are going out on Saturday for the street team. We are basically going to be going door to door promoting the even on May 17^th as well as asking for pictures and memories that local community members have about the club in its better days. Hopefully we will be able to also meet people who are interested and knowledgeable for the oral histories. After we go door to door, I am planning on going to the club to hopefully meet more nice people like Paul and Anne who will also be willing to work with us for oral history interviews. Finally, since I am part of the event planning, I am going to meet with the owners to work out the food for the event. Hopefully they are willing to make some sort of deal that comes along with a ticket purchase, but this is obviously at their discretion. I plan on having the final details about food for the event on Tuesday in class.