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 21:19:54 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 6:22 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Old Schoolkids [was: Old School]

> At 02:42 PM 3/31/05 -0600, samlubell at verizon.net wrote:
>
> >The real challenge will be to take all the millions reading Harry Potter
> and turn even a small fraction of them into con fen.
>
> Good point.  Can we have a Quiddich match at Capclave maybe?
>
> I'm not sure that the forces that led past fans to have cons are still
> extant today.  I wasn't around at "the beginning", but I came along not
all
> that long after the first cons (at least some of those where were around
at
> "the beginning" were still around in fair numbers at the time), and I've
> been to recent cons and the feel is different now...and I don't think
it's
> just my own distance from the "golden age" of 12.

I'm tempted to just quote your whole post and say "AOL that!"   The
"feeling" *is* different at current-day cons, although every Worldcon has
at least a half dozen smaller cons nestled within it, at least a couple of
which are made up of holdovers from The Old Days, who try to keep that
"feeling" alive.   But it now ¢o$ts thousands to attend a Worldcon.  Back
in the day I could do one on $25 -- including the travel.

These days I go to only one convention on a must-attend basis, and that's
Corflu.   Devoted to fanzine fandom, its attendance ranges from 50 to 125
(depending on location -- the Panama City Corflu had only around 20).  It
was 115 this year in San Francisco.  Next year is Toronto.   I can count on
seeing many decades-long friends at Corflu; it's like an annual reunion
party.

--Ted White