Merry Christmas from the 1980 STAR OKC Christmas Party

The wild bacchanal was held at the apartment of Larry and Zann Jones.

 Back row, above:  Unknown, Mark Alfred.  Front row:  Paul Marek, Zann Jones, Maxine ??, unknown.

L-R:  Zann Jones, Mike Powell (rear), Paul Marek, Mike Hodge (rear), Larry Jones

 This year Joyce and I moonlighted as Mr and Mrs Santa for parties, and came here directly after a gig.  The above photo reflects the surprise of Zann, Larry, and Mike on being confronted by two Clauses in red.

Our best to all whose orbits intersected ours -- in 1980, and into the 21st century and beyond!

Photos from 1980

Selik Meets Russell Bates

 On the Saturday night of BabelCon I, there was an Ambassador's Banquet, as narrated previously.

I was there as the stuck-up Vulcan, Selik, in a costume my wonderful wife was nagged at, to finish in time.

This overexposed picture nevertheless shows the masking-tape-and-latex ears that were self-applied in the bathroom.  Also the Vulcanian eyebrows, the result of shaving off the outside ends of the brows and spirit-gumming the resultant shavings.

The Banquet had a yummy repast.  But, being Vulcan, ol' snooty Selik ate only vegetables.

It was also pretty darn hot in that big enclosed space,  which also contained the indoor pool.  However, Selik professed to find the heat (if not the humidity) refreshing.

What a doofus!

One of the guests at BabelCon 1 was Russell Bates, most famous to Trekkers as the author of the animated STAR TREK episode, "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth."

Somehow Bates was impressed enough to not only take this picture of a line-up of "Ambassadors," he also took my home address and mailed me the photo.  The white-lettered caption is made of peel-n-stick letters, pressed on by Bates.

Also in the Bates photo you can see the ol' Vulcan eyebrow-cock.  I may be the only person who will admit to practicing for hours in front of the bathroom mirror until they could raise his eyebrows independently, "just like Mr Spock."  In the 1960s, as a teenager, not in 1980!

Our next post will cover the road to BabelCon '81.

More Scenes from BabelCon I

 More young types dressimg up for BabelCon I, summer, 1980.

Next time you can check out my wife's great sewing and I'll tell you a story about being a little too-much-in-character.

BabelCon - STAR's 1980 Con

"BabelCon I - and so it begins" was the slug line made up for STAR OKC's 1980 Convention.  It was help in the summer of 1980 at OKC's Southgate Inn, on I-35.

Here are the members of S.T.A.R. Oklahoma City in 1979 -- the group that started BabelCon:

 

... And at BabelCon I, my friends, your humble Chronicler makes his appearance.

I don't know how I found out about BabelCon, but I arrived on Friday night of the three-day-affair.  I walked through the small area of panels and dealers.

I came back on Saturday and spent the day.  I brought my STAR TREK scrapbook to show off -- oooh, how cute! -- and was scandalized when somebody offered to buy it off me.  Parenthetically, most of the stuff posted by me during last year's "STAR TREK month" on my Super Blog came from my scrapbooks.

the banquet

On Saturday evening there was an "Ambassador's Banquet."  This was a tie-in to the con's name, BabelCon.  As we all know, Babel was the site of a peace conference referred to several times in Star Trek.  So what better name for the Saturday-night feast?  All the people in costume could be ambassadors!

Ambassador from Landru's Planet

Salt Vampire and what-is-it

Dawn Atkins as a "Fantasy Warrior"

Paul Marek as Poochie; Maxine Franz as the
Pooch Keeper

Next time: more photos from BabelCon -- the con with no shame!  (oh, that's ME that has no shame, sorry)