40 Years of Star Trek?!!

As you probably know.. I keep an eye out for conventions and autograph shows. It came to my attention that this year is the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek! Gads! 40 years of Star Trek!.. how sad that it falls on the first year that there is actually no version of Star Trek on television anymore.

After finding this out I just had to pull out my binders and look for what I had saved from when I went to the 30th Anniversary Celebration that took place in Huntsville Alabama. (my only time in that state) Wow.. the memories that pulled up!

One of the things I had saved and came across was a "report" I had written about the weekend I spent there. For a brief moment I thought "ohhh, maybe I can scan this and put it in for my journal post!"... quickly followed by: "ummm, I guess not its 9 typed pages long!" heh.. ah well it was just an idea after all lol.

I spent that weekend with two girlfriends.. One was Sue Keenan, the president of DeForests Fan Club who is still a friend of mine. The other was a girlfriend I had from when I lived in Ft. Pierce Florida, her name is Ruth. When I read my "report" I found myself with a big grin on my face as I read how we all acted like "kids" when in reality we were no where near being a kid! Things like turning off the light in the hotel only to start talking in the dark, followed by a bad case of the giggles.. lord.. shades of when you would have a friend spend the night at your home when you were a kid and you'd giggle most of the night instead of sleeping!

The Anniversary of Star Trek was put on by Creations Convention with the aid of Paramount Studio and it was a biggie! They had guests from all the series of Star Trek AND a number of Astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights.

When I first began going to Star Trek conventions they were really fun and the best! Now many of the people doing the cons (most especially Creation Conventions) have made it so that only the rich can afford a good seat and a good time. We are talking tickets for 350.00 and above!! This verses the 25.00 a day and first come first serve. First come first serve was the best part of the old conventions (even Creations had that back then). We'd wake up at 3 in the morning to be among the first 10 people in line!! Many friends were made sitting in those lines all sharing their convention stories. What a time that was!

Now.. you "buy your seat" sometimes as much as a year in advance (hoping you aren't sick and can still go) for prices like 3-4 hundred dollars, plus your flight to wherever the con is .. plus your hotel ... plus your food.. plus spending money.. getting the picture yet? Your Star Trek weekend can easily cost you over 1,000. !!! It's so sad when your fun is taken away because you can now, no longer afford it.

It was nice going to them.. getting to hear stories the guests told, (sometimes really funny stories... De told some hysterical stories of his cowboy days!) and then a question and answer time so maybe, if you raised your hand, they chose you and you got to ask a question. Even if you weren't chosen it was interesting to hear answers to many of the questions asked.

Ah well.. memories... thank goodness for them!!

This year Creation is doing a 40th Anniversary at the Hilton in Las Vegas in August. Here's a list of the stars you get to see for your 324.00 ticket (not including your hotel and seated behind the gold tickets and the captains tickets.. heh..

WILLIAM SHATNER / AVERY BROOKS / KATE MULGREW / JONATHAN FRAKES / NICHELLE NICHOLS / ROBERT PICARDO / ROBERT FOXWORTH / BRENT SPINER / BARBARA MARCH / LOUISE FLETCHER / ANDREA MARTIN / ROBERT DUNCAN McNEILL / CONNOR TRINNEER / ARON EISENBERG / ARMIN SHIMERMAN / ALEXANDER SIDDIG / GEORGE TAKEI / WALTER KOENIG / DIANA MULDAUR / TIM RUSS / GRACE LEE WHITNEY / ETHAN PHILLIPS / MICHAEL WESTMORE / ROBERT JUSTMAN / GARRETT WANG / JEFFREY COMBS / GARY GRAHAM / MARC ALAIMO / JAMES DARREN

If anyone goes to it I hope you do a "con report" in the journal!!..

They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them.