Before My First Professional Sale

     For the years 1977 through 1980, I was still writing for fanzines and newsletters. I wouldn’t make my first paying sale until early 1981, but that’s explained in DOTTY’S DIMENSIONS: THE PREFACE. Meanwhile, most of my writing covered my trips and science fiction convention (SF con) reports. I didn’t take any major trips in those years; instead, I mostly visited places in Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia for the day; New York City for day or overnight trips: and Washington, DC, for a night or two.

     As for the SF cons, my first con was a Star Trek (ST) con in July of 1977 in Philadelphia for four days. A professional convention promoter ran this con for a profit, but I still enjoyed it. For those four nights, I partied at room parties and at the hotel’s bar. I also observed different events on the main ballroom stage: a talent show that included Dora the Singing Andorian singing “Am I Blue?”, a concert by a rock/Trek group whose name I forgot, the Greater Overbrook String Band—from the Mummers’ Parade, and the Masquerade. During the four days, I listened to panels covering subjects as diverse as the return of ST to TV or films to real space exploration. In the main ballroom, I saw some of the stars from ST on stage: James Doohan, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and Grace Lee Whitney. I also watched different ST episodes in the screening room, the ST Bloopers, a few SF films, and some films from NASA. Then I stepped into and looked around the Art Show room, and I browsed and bought a few things in the Dealers’ Room. In the end, I made a few friends, and like London, I vowed that I would attend another SF con someday.

     That someday with the SF cons came in October 1977 when I 1) attended a ST Mini Con in King of Prussia, PA—an edge city outside of Philly. This was a much more scaled-down version of the four-day con I went to in July. It included two rooms: a conference room where a big-named-fan (BNF) named Joan Winston talked about the different SF and ST cons that she attended and included slides from some of those cons, and a few other people who discussed fanzine writing. The committee also showed a few ST episodes. The other room was a small Dealers’ Room where I browsed and bought a few items. Unlike the July con, some fan dealers ran this con instead of a professional convention organizer.
     The following April (1978), the same group also ran a 2) similar ST mini-con at the same place. 
     It wouldn’t be until February 1979 that I attended a multi-day con, three days to be exact. This con was a 3) ST con in NYC, and the same professional con organizer who ran the four-day con in Philly ran this con as well. I did much of the same things that I did at the Philly con, and many of the same ST cast members that were at the Philly con were here too. The big difference was that I also met Dr. Isaac Asimov. I talked with him a bit, and he gave me a French kiss—twice! (I later learned from others about his reputation with the women.) This was also the first “snow con” for me because on the third day it snowed for up to around 16 inches! Therefore, I had to stay an extra night in the hotel. 
     Later that year, in September 1979, I went to the same place in NYC again for 4) another ST con that the same pro-con promoter ran. There were many similar panels, films, and other events as at the last NYC con; the big difference to me was that this three-day con drew more people than the February con, and one of the guests was Angelique Pettyjohn. (She played Shana, in the ST episode, “The Gamesters of Triskelion.”) First, she appeared in her Shana costume and wig, and she did a dance on stage; later, she appeared as herself in her normal clothes and hair. As for the weather at this con, it proved as hot as the February con was cold! The temperature on one of the days went to over 100 degrees. 
     The following July in 1980 felt just as hot when I went to 5) another three-day ST con: Shore Leave, about 20 miles north of Baltimore, Maryland. Unlike the other multi-day ST cons, a ST club, the ST Association of Towson, ran this con. It was their first three-day con, and in some ways, it showed: Some of the speakers never showed up, and some of the films never arrived. (Others told me that this happens a lot with first time, three-day cons. Then, if the con committee keeps at it, the cons get better with each passing year. In Shore Leave’s case, that did happen.) Nevertheless, I did enjoy this con and made a few more friends.

     Then, in November 1980, I went to my first general SF con: Philcon or Philadelphia SF Conference. The Philadelphia Science Fiction Society has run this con since 1936, and both the club and con have been non-profit. Although Philcon, or as long as I’ve been attending Philcon, has been a three-day con, for 1980, I attended for a day. Like the ST cons, the committee provided a Dealers’ Room, Art Show, panels—including panels about space exploration, etc. Nevertheless, the big differences were that the guests-of-honor (GOH) were SF writers and SF artists—not stars from ST or other SF TV shows and films. While a few of the panels covered TV or movie SF, most of the other panels covered literary SF. Even many of the publications for sale in the Dealers’ Room were more diverse. Some of the dealers sold TV and film tie-in SF books, but many other dealers sold original SF. The same applied to the Art Show. Some of the art works were characters and scenes from SF TV shows and films, but many others covered original SF and fantasy. My favorite part of the con was listening to SF author Ben Bova give his GOH speech, “Building a Real World.” (At that time, he was the editor of Omni magazine.) Overall, after attending the 1980 Philcon, I asked myself, “Where have I been all these years?” Since then, I have attended every Philcon except for one in 1983—due to the flu. 
     Later, my final con before my first professional sale was a ST con called Starcon in January 1981. This three-day con was in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, and I knew that the first three-day or any kind of con could have its troubles, but the troubles with this ST con were very bad, and the con chairperson had all the charm of a used-car salesperson. Many panels were cancelled, some guests never showed up, and neither did many of the films. I did enjoy what they had left of the con, and they had some of the stars from ST there: George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Bruce Hyde. (Hyde played Lt. Riley in a few of the first-season ST episodes.) However, they never had another con again—unlike Shore Leave. 
     Then, in the spring issue of Shoestring Travel Quarterly, my first bit of paid writing appeared, and I’d like to think that my life changed after that. (By the way, this magazine folded in the 1990s.) 

London 1976

     Ever since the first semester in my first year in high school when I had to take a course in social studies about the history of England, I became a bit of an Anglo file. I got an A in the course, and after that, I wanted to visit England very much. By the first week of October in 1976, I got my wish. This was also the first major trip I ever took by myself. In 1976, I was working as an outside travel agent, and I learned about a package plan to London that included airfare, hotel, and transfers that was very reasonable. Thus, I booked it. (Outside travel agent meant that I didn’t work in the office of the agency, but I did outside sales for the agency from my home. I got paid 5% commission, but no salary. At that time, I also worked part time in a bookstore; it was my regular salary.)

     I don’t remember too many details of the trip, but at the time, I was young, pretty (So people told me—you can check my first passport photo for yourself.), and somewhat single. (I was engaged then, but we broke up after this trip.) Therefore, I saw the major sights: Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, and the Tower of London as well as St. Paul’s Cathedral, British Museum/British Library, and Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I also did some browsing—and a bit of shopping—at Harrods’s Department Store, Fortnum & Mason’s, and along Oxford Street above Mayfair, King’s Road in Chelsea, and Kensington High Street in Kensington. I also took a half-day tour of Windsor Castle and St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, outside of the Greater London Area. At night, I went to a few bars and pubs in Kensington (near where my hotel was located), as well as Chelsea, and Bloomsbury. I also rode the London Underground (“the tube”), and compared to the New York Subway, it was easier to figure out and much cleaner. (In the 1990s, those in power cleaned up the NYC Subway, and made it safer.)

     As I said in DOTTY’S DIMENSIONS: THE PREFACE: “I had the time of my life, and I vowed someday to return to London.” 

High School Trips

     Our high school trips were overnight trips, and in late spring of 1971, our high school organized an overnight freshman trip at the New Jersey Shore. The busses took us first to Atlantic City. By the early 1970s, AC was almost a shell of itself from its heydays of the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Nevertheless, we did get to see a talent show on the main stage at the old Steel Pier, ride some of the amusements on Steeple Chase Pier, and visit a mid-sized wax museum as well as buy salt-water taffy, fudge, and peanuts—and walk the Boardwalk. Later, the busses drove us south to Ocean City to spend the night at a motel there. (I realize now that this was a smart move on the part of the school because Ocean City is a dry town. Therefore, there was no danger of underage students sneaking into bars and liquor stores [off-license].) In Ocean City, we rode more amusement rides, walked the boardwalk as well as the beach.

     For our sophomore trip in 1972, we stayed overnight in Philadelphia at the Holiday Inn in Old City or the historic district. I was surprised to hear that a few of the students had never been to Philly! Thus, I led a few of them toward different historic sites in the area starting with Independence Hall. Back then, you could still see the Liberty Bell there, and we toured the Betsy Ross House. The National Park Service was in the process of further restoring or reconstructing different buildings in time for the Bicentennial in 1976. The next day, the busses took us to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Again, the staff here was in the process of renovating a good portion of the museum. Therefore, we saw some American and European paintings and statues, as well as a few period rooms from the USA and Europe. Of course, some of the guys spent quite a bit of time looking at the statue of Diana the Huntress. (She is naked and used to be on top of the Madison Square Garden located near Madison Square Garden Park from the early 20th century until the mid-1920s, when another Madison Square Garden in the Theater District in NYC replaced it. Hence, the Philly Art Museum obtained Diana.) Several of us laughed at some of the nude statues and paintings ourselves.

     It was spring 1973 and our junior trip was to New York City for the night. A sizeable number of students have never been to NYC (I had been there three times by then, not counting the 1964 World’s Fair.), so after we unloaded our luggage at the Statler- Hilton (This hotel is now back to its old name: Pennsylvania.), the adult chaperones had us line up to walk to the Empire State Building. After we all had a chance for a view from the top, we were, somewhat, on our own. Again acting like a tour guide, I led a small group to a few different stores: Macy’s, Woolworth’s, Gimbal’s, and a few other shops in the area. We were also under orders to be back at the hotel by 9 p.m.—or the chaperones would call the police--so were back in time. (There was no wild nightlife for us!) The next day, we boarded our busses for the United Nations. Here, we took a tour of the UN complex, and we did some more shopping in the UN gift shop before heading home.

     My final school trip, in my senior year of high school, 1974, we headed to Washington, DC. Thus, we visited some of the Smithsonian museums in the Mall—we could pick anywhere within the Mall to visit. (I visited the Arts & Industry Building that day.) Later, as per orders from the chaperones, we met in front of the Smithsonian Castle and boarded our busses to take us to our hotel: Harrington Hotel. The next day, it was back to the Mall to check out more sights around there. (I visited the American Museum of History and Technology—now it they call it the American History Museum.) I have full reports on all of the places that I visited during my high school trips—but the reports take place later—in my publications that are downloadable from my web site. 

School Trips Part Two

     Starting in second grade, those in authority at my school, St. Lawrence RC School, decided that by second grade we could have a full-day school trip. Therefore, in spring 1964, some of the staff, the nun I had for a teacher, and the teacher for the other second grade class escorted us on busses, and we headed to the Philadelphia Zoo. I have been here before with my parents, but I still found it interesting looking at the animals, even if most of them were just sleeping. Back then, the zoo sold special “keys” in the shape of an elephant with the trunk being the key that you inserted into a special audio box near the different animals. Thus, the staff bought several, and the adult in each of our groups had us gather around the box and listen to an audio talk about that particular animal. The Children’s Zoo proved especially popular because we could handle some the farm animals there. I particularly remember a woman from the zoo staff holding a chimpanzee and telling us that he was not a monkey. (I have since learned that chimpanzees share 99.6% of the same DNA as Humans; that makes them closer to us than to monkeys.) As the day wore on, it got hotter, and we were so thirsty that we drank from the drinking fountains, despite the funny taste of the water. (The water is safe; Philadelphia’s tap water comes from the Delaware River, and it is filtered and cleaned, but I can taste the chemicals in it.) I have reports about this place in my publications.

     It was spring of 1965, and our third-grade school trip was to the Aquarama in South Philadelphia. (This place opened in the mid-1960s and closed in the later 1960s.) This time we looked at tanks of different kinds of fish, tropical birds, and a dolphin show. The dolphin show was very interesting for most of us because of the popularity of the TV show Flipper that was on prime time TV then.

     This would be my last school trip with St. Lawrence School, and during our fourth-grade trip, spring 1966, we took a longer than usual bus ride to Trenton, NJ, to visit the New Jersey State Museum. Here, we looked at rocks, plants, and stuffed animals as well as artifacts from the local Native Americans, the Lenni-Lenapes (Back then, we still called them Indians.), items from other past human residents in NJ from the 1600s to the 1960s, and other exhibit areas. I also remember our teacher pointing out to us when we were outside of the museum the gold-domed state capitol building that was next door.

     The following year, 1967, found me at another school, the local public school in Clementon. Thus, our fifth-grade school trip was to Batsto, NJ, in Wharton State Park. Batsto was once a company town that made items of iron in the 1700s. Sometime in the 1800s, the town changed its industry to glass, and in the late 1800s, Joseph Wharton bought the town and turned it into a gentleman’s farm. Sometime in the early 1960s, the state of NJ restored the town to look the way it did in the late 1800s. We toured the mansion, walked around the village of workers’ houses (We couldn’t go into them because state workers lived in them.), and looked inside the general store. We also saw the sawmill in action as well as the gristmill, rode a stagecoach around the property, and took a guided nature hike in the surrounding woods. (I have written a report about Batsto in my publications.)

     In spring of 1968, we took our sixth-grade school trip to Valley Forge, PA. Once here, we saw a film in the visitors’ center about what went on at Valley Forge as well as some exhibit items from the 1700s, toured the farmhouse that Washington stayed in, and the reproductions of the log cabins the troops stayed at during that time. (I also have a report about Valley Forge in my publications.)

     Our seventh-grade homeroom teacher in junior high organized a trip in spring 1969 to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Thus, we have the chance to see plenty of stuffed animals, mostly in dioramas, rocks, plants, and bones of animals—both extinct and non-extinct. (I also wrote about this museum in my publications.)

     For the next year, eight grade and spring 1970, our homeroom teacher organized a school trip for us to visit the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia. This may have been one of the most popular school trips because of the many hands-on exhibits for students and other people to try to operate—and hopefully learn the science behind what we were doing. (I have a few reports about this place in my publications.)

School Trips Part One

     For many children, the school trip was one of the few times they had to see the world beyond their hometown. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case for me because my parents did take my brothers and me to different places in the area as well as different vacations in the USA and Canada. Nevertheless, my first school trip, in 1960, was in nursery school when some members of the school staff took us to Berlin Park, Berlin, NJ, for a few hours. I think part of the purpose was to teach us patience and to wait our turn to ride the swings and sliding board as well as to enjoy the outdoors and nature.

     The following year, 1961, the staff of the nursery school took us to Cooper River Park, Cherry Hill, NJ. Although this park didn’t have swings and a sliding board, we did picnic, take a nature tour, and tossed a beach ball in a game of dodgeball.

     For the spring of 1962, I was in public school in kindergarten, and the school staff and our teacher took us on a train ride from a station in Lindenwold to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. The sights to see on the train proved interesting for most of the students, and once at 30th Street Station, somebody from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company took us on a quick tour of the station. Then we had a quick snack before another train took us back to Lindenwold. (Back in the early 1960s, Pennsylvania Railroad was in business. By the mid-1960’s, due to increased travel by air, Pennsylvania Railroad merged with New York Central and became Penn-Central. Air travel, however, still caused a decrease in long-distance train travel so much that by 1971, the US Government bought out most private train companies, including Penn-Central, and the whole system became Amtrak.)

     I started attending St. Lawrence RC School in first grade, and in the spring of 1963, our first-grade classes boarded busses to take us to the Philadelphia International Airport for a few hours. The first thing that amazed us was the size of the different aircraft. For some of the students, this was the first time they ever saw a jet or a large prop plane. (Keep in mind that in 1963, large meant a Boeing 707, and the whole airport back then was about the size that Terminal B is today.) It was definitely a first for me when we boarded a 707 because I had never been on a plane before. While the plane didn’t take off and fly, a flight attendant (called a “stewardess” back then) explained the different features of this jet to us while we sat in the seats of this aircraft. After this, we boarded our busses to go back to NJ.

     To be continued....

Where I Grew Up

Just a quick note: Some people wrote to me asking where I lived during my childhood because I belong to groups on Facebook focusing on different small towns in Southern New Jersey. To set the record straight, I was born in a hospital in Audubon, NJ. I grew up in Clementon, NJ, but I also think of myself as growing up in Lindenwold too because the street I lived on in Clementon, Chews Landing Road, covered both towns. I was on the Clementon side, but Lindenwold was on the other side of the street, and a few blocks down the same side of the street where I lived was in Lindenwold as well. That's why I read and sometimes add imput to both the Clementon and Lindenwold FB pages. I had childhood friends from both towns, and the only difference was that my Clementon friends went to school with me, and my Lindenwold friends went to another school. (At least in fifth and sixth grades. During first through fourth grades, I went to St. Lawrence RC School. From seventh grade on, we all went to Overbrook Jr. & Sr. High. And a few of my friends went to Camden County College but not at the same time or same classes as me.)