Events for 1983

     For 1983, I got married. We (my fiancée and I) wanted to pay for most of the wedding ourselves, at the same time, we didn’t want to go into debt over it. Therefore, we had a smaller wedding—around 50 people. At first, we looked at the local Episcopal church that we attended, but the cost was $$$$$, and a service of blessing there or getting married in the nearby Baptist and Methodist churches cost $$$$. Thus, we were left with our $$$ budget and hiring either a municipal judge (NJ has no Justice of the Peace, the municipal judge served that purpose in the Garden State.) or a non-denominational minister. We did find the latter, and he was connected with an organization that later became World Christian Ship Ministries. (Yes, we did check with the local borough hall in the town where was wedding was held to make sure he filed the correct paperwork.) We also saved money by marrying inside a gunning club that my brother belonged to, especially because he got a discount for being a member. It worked out much better having the ceremony and reception in the same place. We stayed in a local motel before heading for a few nights to the Poconos in PA, at a resort there.

     Despite money being a bit tight that year, we still managed to spend a day or weekend in NYC, Philly, DC, and within NJ, and we visited different places in Pennsylvania, starting with our Pocono honeymoon and into the rest of the year visiting different places in Eastern PA to Central PA. Overall, we visited museums, restored or reconstructed villages, farms, as well as theme parks, resorts, historical places, gardens, state parks, etc.

     As for science fiction conventions (SF cons), we only attended one for a day: a two-day Creation Con in the summer in Philadelphia at a Center City hotel. I think it was a Holiday Inn. It offered similar events to last year’s Creation Con: two main rooms—a dealers’ room with many comic-book dealers, and a main ballroom where different guests talked about subjects dealing with media--SF via talks, slide shows, and videos. Here, I learned the latest news about Star Trek (ST) and other SF TV shows and films, and at some talks, I learned about the creative process in making certain SF TV shows and films. At a makeup demonstration, I remembered somebody taking a volunteer from the audience and making him up to look like an alien. Then there was the main guest, Mark Lenard. (He most famously played Sarek, Spock’s Vulcan father, from ST, and in addition, Mark Lenard played a Romulan commander in an early episode from the 1960s ST series as well as a Klingon commander in ST: The Motion Picture.) He mainly talked about his acting career and mentioned meeting Jane Wyatt (who played Spock’s Human mother, Amanda) while in his Vulcan makeup. At that time, the makeup artists made him up to look much older. This procedure included adding gray streaks in his hair and wrinkles on his face—in addition to the Vulcan ears, eyebrows, and complexion. (Mark Lenard was only six years older than Leonard Nimoy.) Anyway, later in the day while he was in the parking lot at the studio, and out of his makeup, he saw Jane Wyatt and said something to her such as “I’ll see you later.” Jane Wyatt didn’t recognize him and maybe thought that he was getting fresh with her. Anyhow, the con overall, was quite similar to the one the Creation committee had in Philly last year.

     Finally, I had every intention of going to Philcon 1983, but that November weekend, I was sick with the flu. It was the only time, so far, that I ever missed a Philcon!