A Look Back

The picture to the left was taken at Southerncon, the first, and almost last, media oriented con we attended. To say that things were badly run would be like saying George Custer had an off day at Little Bighorn. The person bringing the film program didn't show, many of the "workers" just hung around the stars, and the day was saved by local fans who helped fill in the holes.

It wasn't all bad, though. The guests, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, Peter Mayhew and Patrick Stewart (not Piccard, this was the kid from Battlestar Gallactica 1980) were a lot of fun to be around and we managed to have a good time.

The picture shows my wife Jean and me as we were back in the last century. I believe it was Sunday afternoon and we're smiling because the thing is coming to an end, so we are ready to head back to East Tennessee. The local organizers were left to take care of remaining business, such as paying the bills. Which they didn't. It hurt Science Fiction's reputation with local hotels, until the "mainsteam' fans were able to show a good track record with hotels since Kubla Khan started in 1973.

I'm a bit off my usual topics this time. I started working again last week and the intensive training was not conducive to fanac involving thought process. We are scoring creative writing papers for 4th graders from some other state. It is amazing what these kids can come up with. If some of them continue we will see some good writers in the years to come.

As for this weekend, I'm off to Pigeon Forge and the annual Winter Carnival of Magic where there will be magicians galore and dealers with all sorts of exotic paraphenalia. If you think Science Fiction Fandom can be weird, just hang around with a bunch of magicians for a weekend.