If you have gotten this far, you should know that my name is Gary Brownlee. I live in Hamilton, Illinois. The easiest way to find Hamilton is to find where Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri meet. We are not too far from that point.
I have lived in this neck of the woods for most of my life, except when I was in the Navy back in the early 80's. It is a good place to live, we get just enough of the four seasons so as we don't get tired of them.
It's not what we miss out on by not living closer to a big city, it's what we gain by not living closer to a big city. Enough of all that, you're here to learn more about me.
The first and foremost thing I should talk about is my family. My wife, Ingrid and I have been married for 4 years. We have two beautiful daughters, Karina and Stephanie. I was just watching my oldest one play house. It was such a joy to see her at play. For those of you who have kids, you know what I am talking about. For those of you who don't, you don't know what you're missing.
I am employed as a lab tech at a local auto parts manufacturer. Been doing that for about 8 years. It is a good job that allows me to dive into all my interest. My interests besides shot glass collecting is football (Go Cowboys!), Fantasy Football, (I won first place in the league I was in 1997.), bowling, tennis, chess, and backgammon. I refuse to play on the internet, I spend enough time in front of this computer as it is.
My shot glass collection started back in 1982, when I was overseas. We were in Naples, Italy and I bought a set of 6 shot glass boots. Each with a different city on it. Unfortunately, I only have two left. I got in to collecting seriously in 1992. I updated my inventory. As of Jan. 29, 1999, I now have over 700 shots. I intend to create a page for most of the major collections that I have going. So stay tuned, there's more right around the corner.
In case anyone is wondering why I have cherokee in my website address, my great-grandmother was a Cherokee Indian. This is just my way of recognizing that part of my heritage.