Those of you who share our passion for physical fitness will recognize York, Pennsylvania as the home of York Barbells. It is also the site of the April Crawl and Herf in York (ACHY). This year’s event attracted 106 people from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland; one guy from Florida; and a couple from Alaska. We found the 140-mile trip to be well worth it.

ACHY ’99 featured a single crawl stop, Self Serve Beverage in York. Self Serve carries a wide assortment of premium cigars and cold beer. Cigar reps from Balmoral and Fittipaldi were there promoting their brands and the store was offering a variety of specials for the crawl. We bought a case of Molson’s and a few of the specials and headed off to the herf.

The herf was held indoors at the Record Club of America (RCOA). It was a neat site. The front of the building contains a store where you can purchase classic LPs and cassettes in mint condition. If you still have a turntable and yearn to hear Ginger Baker on vinyl, this is the place to shop. The rear of the building comprises a large, vacant warehouse, which provided a perfect herf venue.

Upon entering, Bill surveyed the room. He quickly identified the best spot for accessing the buffet and we set up our table and chairs accordingly. We then checked in. Each attendee received several cigars and a handmade, wooden travel humidor complete with a mini-humidifier.

We met ACHY’s organizer, Rick Osborn. Rick is a tall, affable fellow who teaches business at York College. When the festivities got going, Rick introduced us to the crowd. There were some scattered applause, a few loud yawns, and a burp or two. We think we heard a fart from the back of the room.

The herf lasted from 1:00 PM ‘til about 6:00 PM. The time went quickly. There were plenty of door prizes, a band, a chicken and BBQ buffet, popcorn and several raffles. Three different vendors had booths and free samples of their wares.

Joe wandered over to a booth tended by a colorful character called “roadog” (sic) or simply “the dog”. The dog was passing out free samples of Reed’s Gourmet Natural Beverages, which are brewed directly from fresh ginger root and other natural ingredients. Extra Ginger Brew has 25 grams of ginger root in each bottle. It was like drinking ginger ale from a fire hose. (See www.Reedgingerbrew.com,) The dog also had some Borgnine coffee soda, which was the perfect complement for cigars. In classic Cigar Guys style, Joe got the dog to give him some free 4-packs to take home.

Bill was intrigued by “Mr. Steve’s” home brew display (1-800-815-9599). After several discussions with the vendor and an even larger number of samples, Bill came walking back to the table with a box on his shoulder. It was a home brew kit.

“I bought this for my wife,” Bill explained to the people around us. “She deserves something nice once in a while. I’m going to help her set it up in the bedroom.”

We began to introduce ourselves around. We met Mike Spagnola, the owner of the Self Serve crawl stop. Mike mentioned that he collected fountain pens and Swiss watches. Incredibly, Joe shares these same interests and the conversation shifted from cigars to collectibles. Mike owns a pen that is particularly coveted by collectors - a Hemingway by Mont Blanc. Dedicated to one of America’s finest writers, twenty five thousand of these pens were produced in 1992 with a retail price of $600. You can now sell them for two and one half times that amount. It is interesting to note that Hemingway did not write with a Mont Blanc. He used a Montegrappa. Where else would you learn this but at a herf?

Someone gave us some Vegueros marevas (5X42) from Cuba. We had not heard of them before. The label said they were handmade with tobacco from the Pinar del Rio province. We assume that the tobacco was not grown in the Vuelta Abajo portion of the province; otherwise the appellation would have been more specific. The aromatic cigars were very strong and did not appeal to us.

As Joe circulated about trading cigars and opinions, Bill had somehow latched on to a reporter from the local paper that was covering the event.

“This is a cutter. It costs $40. It works like this. ….” Joe overheard Bill explain.

Joe passed by again about 10 minutes later. Bill was still going.

“The is a lighter. It costs $65. It works like this. ….”

The reporter’s eyes were closed and he appeared to be dozing. Bill didn’t seem to notice. He was in the zone.

“This is a travel humidor. It cost me about $10 to make. It works like this. ….”

A photographer came by and slowed Bill’s momentum. “Pretend I’m not here,” she said. She then began shooting a flash is our faces until we saw spots. The reporter took advantage of the distraction to make his escape.

It was time for Rudy’s raffle. A guy named Rudy had made a handsome ashtray and some other accessories and was raffling them for cigars. You received one chance for each cigar deposited in Rudy’s bag. Lesser men would have thrown in several 5 packs of Phillies Blunts, but we donated a Rough Rider (our official cigar) and an authentic Cuban corona (hecho en Newark, New Jersey totalmente a mano). Both were fine selections but we did not win. We hope Rudy enjoys them anyway.

Despite its success, Rick Osborn doubted that there would be an ACHY event next year. The RCOA site has been leased and will not be available. Also, Rick felt burned out from all the effort he put in to this year’s event. We wanted to thank him for a job well done. Some of the fellows gave him cigars. We thought he’d appreciate something more lasting especially since this was likely to be the final ACHY. We are working on a classical play called King Herfer V, which is destined to make people forget Shakespeare. In keeping with Rick’s scholarly background, we chose to salute Rick and the ACHY attendees by writing the following soliloquy into Act IV, scene III.

The Cigar Guys

P.S. You can view more pictures and read the official account of ACHY at www.achy.org.

You can The Cigar Guys at: tbill@enter.net for any comments or questions.

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