Polite Dissent

When I was 12, I went to my first science-fiction convention: RoVaCon 7. It was a small convention held at a high school in Roanoke, Virginia. We lived about 45 miles away and I convinced my father to take me for my birthday. He agreed and two weeks later, my dad and I, along with my friends Kevin and Steve, piled into our old Chevy Malibu station wagon and drove the hour to Roanoke.

The main guests were William Tenn and Laura Banks. William Tenn is one of the best short-story writers in science fiction and has become a favorite of mine (though could someone please explain his story Wednesday’s Child to me). At the time, Laura Banks was best known for being one of the two female followers of Khan in Star Trek II. I think that’s still her main claim to fame. Other guests were there too, including Richard Preston and Kelly Freas, but I have no memory of seeing them.

While my friends and I wandered the dealer’s room (the gym), entered the coloring contest and just meandered about, my dad stayed in the auditorium listening to the various speakers and watching the movies.

It was a fun day, and I have many good memories of the con:

• I bought my first comic book back issue: Uncanny X-Men #146, the 2nd issue of the three-part Dr. Doom/Arcade storyline. I paid one dollar for it.
• Even though we felt we were “too old” to enter the coloring contest, my friends and I entered it anyway because they gave candy to anyone who entered, and – well – it was candy and we were 12! They had a picture of their mascot, Rover (a dog in a bubble helmet) for us to color. I decided he must be an alien dog, so colored him green. I won second place and a ribbon, but no more candy.
• We drove down the street to the local Hardee’s for lunch. Kevin became upset when he realized he had been given sweetened tea instead of unsweetened tea. Steve said “I’ll unsweeten it for you!” and proceeded to pour a whole shaker-full of salt in the tea. General hilarity ensued, though I don’t think my father thought it was all that funny.
• I watched what is probably the worst science-fiction movie ever made: Robinson Crusoe on Mars. My father disagrees, stating that Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was much worse, but come on, it has Pia Zadora in it, so it at least has that going for it.
• I only caught the end of William Tenn’s talk, but I wish that I had heard more. I remember that he was talking about the difficulties of time travel. Not the technical difficulties, but all the cultural differences that would cause problems for the time traveler. Interesting stuff, even to a 12 year old.

Since then I’ve been to about thirty other convention of varying themes. I’ve never failed to have a good time, but that first small convention still ranks as one of the best.