The Indiana Button Show OR Can You Push My Buttons, Babe?

Every year the Indiana Button Society gathers its members from all over the state (and beyond!) to descend upon Columbus for the Indiana State Button Show. If you thought that meant Columbus, Ohio, than you would be wrong. For it turns out there is a Columbus, Indiana.

And it looks like this!

Exciting Columbus, IN!

Sorry, that picture's facing the wrong direction. Let's rotate a quarter turn to the left...

Ostentatious Columbus, IN!

Before we go any further, I feel the need to set the stage. The incredibly surreal stage. That picture isn't of the official Columbus, Indiana Convention Center. No, that's the local Clarion hotel of the rather extensive mid-priced Clarion hotel chain.

Keep that in mind as we step inside to the hotel lobby...

By which I mean, transplanted Main Street shoppes.

The whole place is like that. A series of transplanted and/or ornate decor that was like someone had tried to bring a piece of Disneyland home with them.

Please feel free to relax in the park lobby.

This was in their bar area, just around the corner from the flat screens.

I honestly would feel underdressed
while eating the free continental breakfast here...

But that's okay because the arcade doesn't have a dress code...
...Right?

In their defense, I was tempted to buy something from the hotel shop
just because of the facade.

Cynical Reader might think, "Yes, but that's just window dressing in the lobby and restaurant. Past the doors I bet it's just another courtyard of typical hotel style."

CR would be wrong.

Indoor pool? Check.
Pool tables and ping pong? Check.
Old-fashioned outdoor decor? Double-check.

Even using the restroom felt like it required formal wear.

Shall we continue this discussion over the urinals, gentlemen?

We wandered awkwardly around the courtyard for a couple minutes before we finally spotted the conference center. And even then had to double check because evidently it's in the old mine just past the covered bridge.

Because the bridge just needs to be covered, okay?

And that Conference Center sign brings us to...

...The Indiana Button Show!

Featuring... Well, buttons!

Every single one of those tables had not just hundreds, but thousands of buttons on them. I feel I can only do the show service in a photo montage.

(Feel free to hum your favorite montage music while viewing them.)

Fancy pearl buttons!

Detailed historic buttons!

Prize-Winning button cards!
(Oh yes... That's a thing)

Decorative button cards!
(Also actually a thing.)

This one did not win a prize in the category "3-4 leaf clovers"...
...Because in the official rule book a teapot is an object, not a plant.
(Yes, somebody clarified that specifically.)

Moveable buttons!

Fun buttons!
(Or at least fun WITH buttons!)

Buttons with a past!
(The booth proprietor explained the history of Czech glass buttons to me.
Quite interesting, and involving both Nazis and Communists,
but too long for a caption.)

Random buttons!

Expensive buttons!
(Cheapest button on this tray: $100. Most expensive: $1000.)

Which brings me to the really interesting part: There were some truly fascinating buttons there! A large variety of the buttons that were worth more had history attached to them.

Case in point: The most expensive button I saw at the show. This button was made to commemorate the inauguration of a certain well-known president. Campaign buttons are common, but this president didn't really campaign, so they made them after the fact.

The top says, "Long Live the President."
The initials are G.W.
Yes, THAT president G.W.

Only a few hundred of these were made, and you could own this button for the paltry sum of $1,500. Which, btw, may be a steal, because the owner of the button told me that the most expensive button ever bought at auction sold for $19,000. Which is only slightly less than the MSRP of my car when it was new.

But on a whole, it was a fun, if surreal, experience. To be very honest, I wondered whether I would truly find it fascinating enough to be the subject of a blog post.

I should never have doubted my pure, child-like, and incredibly weird ability to be fascinated.

Especially after I saw this button:

"Man, it is freezing! How cold do you think it is?"
"Hold on. Let me check my button..."

While I won't be taking up button collecting anytime soon, I definitely checked the price on this one.