Why?

This is a bit long and sad, but if you want to know why I have a passion for holsters then read on.

In 1989 I married a great woman, and dragged her off to Kansas City from NJ. for my job, we moved back to NJ in 93 after she gradated from UMKC.

Well it seems I was bored Christmas of ‘96 and talked her into having kids, after a trip to the Dr. to get checked out we started to try for a baby, but on 4/26/97 she miscarried and she named her Emma. The Dr. said “try again you are ok”, but then on 8/18/97 she miscarried I named him George after my late best friend. The Dr. again said “all is well try again”, but on 10/22/97 she lost another one and she named her Hope,

Well she found a new Dr. who did some tests, and gave her some drugs. On 11/05/98 Cameron James was born a few weeks early but we had a child. We didn’t want Cameron to be an only child so we thought we would have another but on 10/29/00 she lost Gabriel.

In December 2000 I decided I wanted to memorialize the children we had lost on my holsters and belt, so they would always be remembered. I set about looking, and had a vendor help me find the angel stamp. I sent e-mails with the info, then the communication with them stopped, so it ended up I bought my rig off a guy I spent a lot of time chatting with online. However he has since had bad delivery times and is having medical & staffing problems.

On 3/13/02 Jessica was born and I am now wrapped around her finger.

Flash forward to 2005 I had an idea to get a collection together for a big shoot I was going to, I had a write up on The Leather Challenge, now renamed Leather Showcase, in the Cowboy Chronicle and posted on the SASS wire about it.

Well nobody wanted to donate their work so I started buying holsters, all the while knowing I was going to have a holster from the vendor that helped me out back in 2000 (you see I was going to try to send buyers to them at the shoot). I had hoped it would help my fellow shooters to see a cross section of craftsmanship from various people, and the quality of their work. But it has turned into claims of me being out for money, or free leather, and I should pay to display it.

So here I am with a bunch of holsters I want to display, a collection of holsters from many different craftsmen, that I want to share with fellow shooters, in the hopes that maybe by doing so I can help out not only the shooter looking for leather, but the leather makers as well.

All I ask is that I be paid with the words "Thank you"

If you live within 4 or 5 hrs of Philly, and have the approval of the powers that be at your shoot, let me know maybe I will be off the night before so I can come shoot and show off the display.

jccdare@juno.com