Following the great Pee-Wee victory and day in the sweltering Georgia heat at the Golf Hall of Fame, we were all ready for some indoor activity. That afternoon saw the Grand Council meeting, a gathering of Sons to discuss ‘business’ matters at hand. For the second year in a row, there was no business – as most of the Sons are too bored, complacent, or old to care about much any more. So we voted on the next convention. Our choices were Sacramento, Detroit, and Amsterdam. Since Amsterdam promised to be an extremely costly trip, I voted for Sacramento.
After the meeting, we all slipped back to our rooms to get into costume for the evening’s banquet, which was also the Laurel and Hardy Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. Why we were in costumes, I am not sure – other than the fact that most conventions always contain some sort of
costume gathering. I went as a ‘Disillusioned Son’ and wore my street clothes, as did Ashleigh. Gene, Ellen, and Karen-Marie from our tent wore cute prison garb (above right). As you can see in the photo at left, Bob also wore his standard street clothes and Ed Greim came as a ‘man with cigar’.
As always, most of the fun I have at conventions any more derives from just being with my close friends, and as a bonus, I had Ashleigh to spend time with as well. She and I spent most of the convention just having a silly time, giggling like schoolchildren. The Dinner Theater itself was mildly entertaining, but as usual with shows like this, I never know what is going on. During the program, Bob scolded me for creating the glass pyramid as seen above. I reacted appropriately. At the end of the evening, Bob made the official announcement to all delegates as to who had won the bid – and where the next convention would be held: AMSTERDAM. Gee, that’s all the way in the Netherlands!
After the dinner, the Laurel and Hardy dealer’s room opened. Every year, the room gets smaller with less and less for sale. For the first time ever, I came away from the opening of the emporium empty-handed. One Sons member, Cliff Sawyer, had a wonderful display of Oliver Hardy memorabilia to show off. As seen in the below photo, his memorabila is truly unique – two autographed photos of Oliver Hardy, Ollie’s personally-owned Bible presented to Ollie by the team’s manager, a flask from the film The Fighting Kentuckian, and Ollie’s personal pocket watch. The original Sons fez belonged to another collector.
On the other hand, I took the photo-op to get a shot with ‘author’ John D. Santo, creator of the quintessential research tome So What About Fin? I had the opportunity to read this book from cover to cover (in about 30 minutes) and certainly came away wanting more. Fortunately, the author will be following up the tome with another laugh riot. I would certainly recommend his books to anyone wanting a good time.
More on the convention later…
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