memories of when the new world opened up

[sergebroom]

I had been reading science-fiction and fantasy since before I knew how to read (*), but my first English-speaking con was not long after I turned 24... It was 1979's Maplecon, in Ottawa. Not big by modern standards, but it opened a whole new world to me (**). My most vivid memory of it was of wandering around the con late at night, of walking by the movie program, where they were showing The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. It was the scene where the Loch Ness monster had escaped from its fish bowl and, his roar like an army of bagpipes, was chasing after Royal Dano. Like I said, a whole new world...

(*) Thru the 'funnies' in our newspaper's Friday edition. How I'd wait and wait and wait for it (yes, outside, and in the snow) with impatience, should it be late.

(**) And, in an extremely convoluted way, led directly to my meeting - 5 years later - the woman who'd become my significant other.