From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Old Schoolkids [was: Old School]
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 20:54:19 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: <MarkLFischer at aol.com>
To: <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 2:10 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Old Schoolkids [was: Old School]

> In a message dated 3/31/2005 9:55:41 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> bnewton at ashcomp.com writes:
>
> >Mark, trust me, in this group, you *are* in your youth!
>
> My apologies, you're right, this is the Washington Superannuated Fandom
> Association ;-) (no flames please, I have no doubt that's been done often
and
> better).
>
> This has sent me down a slightly depressing thought-path.
>
> I was born in 1960, and discovered written SF around 1970.  I started
going
> to cons a couple of years later.  The proverbial "long story" forced  me
to
> set active fandom aside until very recently, but I had friends who kept
up  with
> it.  As I think about it now, I've seen fans in my broad age bracket  or
> older, but not a great many younger ones.
>
> I suppose I should wait until I've been to a contemporary con or two to
ask,
> but is there actually a younger generation of fen following us up in any
> numbers, or is my lot *it*?

Sadly enough, there aren't many younger fans climbing the ladder these
days.  I became a fan at the age of 13, and although I was then the
youngest fan I knew of, fandom was at that time (early '50s) made up of
more than 50% teenagers.   (I was not, at 13, the youngest fan ever.  My
friend Terry Carr, who was a year older than me, got into fandom at 12 --
giving him a two-year lead on me.  Jeff Wanshell became a fan at 11 and had
his first piece in the prestigious fanzine HYPHEN at 12, putting out the
first issue of his own fanzine at 13.  Later he became a noted playwright.
And WSFA's own Dan Joy also became a fan at around the age of 11, in the
'70s.)

Teenagers no longer read written SF to the extent they once did, having
become ensnared in video games and media skiffy if their inclination points
in the direction of SF at all.  (Many just take SF for granted as part of
the pop media culture.)  And if they are intrigued by amateur journalism,
which once found expression in fanzines, they can do "zines" which are
wholly unconnected with fandom.

What I really liked about the fandom of my youth was the lack of "ageism" I
found there.  Grown adults treated me with respect for the first time in my
life.  One of my best friends in the '50s was Bob Pavlat, who was at least
double my age, but who treated me as an equal.   I'm really sorry that
fandom has lost almost all its teenagers now.

This is generally referred to as "the greying of fandom," and has become
almost a cliche among con program items.

--Ted White