Transcribe
Translate
En Garde, whole no. 9, March 1944
Page 2
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
page 2. particular difference. If it had been a regular convention held at some hotel, it wouldn't have. But after all, there was a limit to the capacity of Slanshack. Then there was the matter of calling it a Michicon. At least to us, that name stood for the annual Mid-West shindig. However, we let the name ride, and even used it on the autograph booklet, though no Mid-West business was transacted at any time during the affair. All of which brings us up to Friday evening. The house was jammed from one end to the other with furniture and unpacked cartons of belongings. Three big van-loads is a lot of stuff. Well, we all took off for a restaurant, and after eating returned to tackle the job of trying to straighten things out enough so we'd have something that a lot of imagination might construe as a place to sleep for the night. We returned-----and found Degler. Degler---hungry and tired and not a bit too proud to beg. He had some weird notion that Abby Lu could drop everything, and by means of a major miracle whip up a meal for him out of that mess. Such blind, ignorant faith was almost touching---almost. The touch came later. Frankly, I was rather at a loss to know what to do about the situation. The CC bull the guy had been spreading, and the way he'd been carrying on other places, had got all of us pretty disgusted with him. Everywhere he'd been during the previous year he'd managed somehow to spread dissention. His printed reports on everything were always distorted. Nor had his several former visits particularly endeared him to us. Here we had a nice group arriving with prospects of a good time and no friction. Was this arbitrary rule of open house for anyone claiming to be a fan so inviolable that one must risk spoiling a gathering of a score of fans merely to give an unfelt welcome to one uninvited individual? And when that individual arrives not only uninvited, but unexpected, twenty-four hours too early, and at a time when none of us were in any mood or position to welcome anyone, can any stretch of ethical concept demand that we greet him with open arms? I finally decided in the negative. Being owner of Slanshack, I knew the others were waiting for me to handle the situation. I callled Degler aside and tried to explain things to him. But I'm afraid he mentally brushed aside anything I said. He claimed to have received an invitation to come, whereupon he rushed posthaste to get here in time. As nobody attending the affair sent such an invite, no other fan has ever admitted to doing so, and as Degler failed to produce the invitation for our inspection, we could only conclude that it existed nowhere but in his imagination. I told Degler that none of those present, or to be present, approved of his recent activities, or his Cosmic Circle guff. I pointed out that everybody would be a lot happier if he were absent from the gathering. But somehow he wasn't impressed by my frantic logic. He didn't even have the decency to show a touch of discouragement. He bounced right back by demanding to know whether I actually intended to exclude the Indiana FFF from the Mid-West Convention. I patiently tried to explain that it wasn't a regular Michicon, and why it wasn't. But it all appears to have gone over his head. All he seems to have got out of my explanation is the screwy notion that the Mid-West FFF had died or been abandoned (witness the so-called revival under Jenkinson as announced in one of his sheets).
Saving...
prev
next
page 2. particular difference. If it had been a regular convention held at some hotel, it wouldn't have. But after all, there was a limit to the capacity of Slanshack. Then there was the matter of calling it a Michicon. At least to us, that name stood for the annual Mid-West shindig. However, we let the name ride, and even used it on the autograph booklet, though no Mid-West business was transacted at any time during the affair. All of which brings us up to Friday evening. The house was jammed from one end to the other with furniture and unpacked cartons of belongings. Three big van-loads is a lot of stuff. Well, we all took off for a restaurant, and after eating returned to tackle the job of trying to straighten things out enough so we'd have something that a lot of imagination might construe as a place to sleep for the night. We returned-----and found Degler. Degler---hungry and tired and not a bit too proud to beg. He had some weird notion that Abby Lu could drop everything, and by means of a major miracle whip up a meal for him out of that mess. Such blind, ignorant faith was almost touching---almost. The touch came later. Frankly, I was rather at a loss to know what to do about the situation. The CC bull the guy had been spreading, and the way he'd been carrying on other places, had got all of us pretty disgusted with him. Everywhere he'd been during the previous year he'd managed somehow to spread dissention. His printed reports on everything were always distorted. Nor had his several former visits particularly endeared him to us. Here we had a nice group arriving with prospects of a good time and no friction. Was this arbitrary rule of open house for anyone claiming to be a fan so inviolable that one must risk spoiling a gathering of a score of fans merely to give an unfelt welcome to one uninvited individual? And when that individual arrives not only uninvited, but unexpected, twenty-four hours too early, and at a time when none of us were in any mood or position to welcome anyone, can any stretch of ethical concept demand that we greet him with open arms? I finally decided in the negative. Being owner of Slanshack, I knew the others were waiting for me to handle the situation. I callled Degler aside and tried to explain things to him. But I'm afraid he mentally brushed aside anything I said. He claimed to have received an invitation to come, whereupon he rushed posthaste to get here in time. As nobody attending the affair sent such an invite, no other fan has ever admitted to doing so, and as Degler failed to produce the invitation for our inspection, we could only conclude that it existed nowhere but in his imagination. I told Degler that none of those present, or to be present, approved of his recent activities, or his Cosmic Circle guff. I pointed out that everybody would be a lot happier if he were absent from the gathering. But somehow he wasn't impressed by my frantic logic. He didn't even have the decency to show a touch of discouragement. He bounced right back by demanding to know whether I actually intended to exclude the Indiana FFF from the Mid-West Convention. I patiently tried to explain that it wasn't a regular Michicon, and why it wasn't. But it all appears to have gone over his head. All he seems to have got out of my explanation is the screwy notion that the Mid-West FFF had died or been abandoned (witness the so-called revival under Jenkinson as announced in one of his sheets).
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
