Memories

Something occurred to me today. As I was getting ready to make final plans for Gen - Con, it hit me. I won't be going to Milwaukee this year. For many years, my friends and I, would make the trek from Boston along I90 and turn right at Chicago. But no more. Gen - Con is now in Indy and doesn't look to be heading back any time soon. I feel sad. Milwaukee had become like a second home to me. I'll miss the sites, the ballpark, the Miller tours and the Safe House. I will most of all miss the people, who were always so friendly and helpfull. Thank you for 12 years of hospitality. I hope I get the chance to come back again soon. Your town is great. Yhank you for the memories and I hope I can see your town again soon.

 

Memories
light the corner of my mind
Misty water color memories
of the way we were

Scattered pictures
of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
for the way we were

Can it be that it was all so simple then,
or has time rewritten every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again,
tell me, would we? Could we?

Memories
may be beautiful and yet
what's too painful to remember
we simply choose to forget

So it's the laughter
we will remember,
whenever we remember
the way we were

 

Yeah, I have lots of memories of Gen Con too. That's where I met Mark Hamill while I was running a fever and had strep throat. That's where I made the T-Shirts and artwork for the Aliens Game Nick Seidler was running, and I got to hold my own autograph session. It was a cool place, and I won't be going to IN either... memories linger on.

 

I wasn't allowed to go to GenCon until a few years back, due to my mother's claim that "bad people attend that place."

My first two years were the best - not just gaming, but the fun stuff I liked - books, art, posters, the cool stuff. Last year it was just pretty much all gaming and weapons. Woohaa. The highlight of my visit was the guy freaking out in front of the Midwest Express Center, claiming our convention to be of the devil or something.

ah, memories.

 

As someone who started going to GenCon 15 years ago, the fact that it is no longer in Milwaukee is sad - it was always my August vacation...take Thursday and Friday off to attend the convention, be there on Saturday and Sunday as well then take Monday and Tuesday off to relax before going back to work. I had decided early on not to go to Indy just for the sake of boycotting it this year. Then I got their mailing and it really made me angry because of who they are all having there this year - but it didn't make me change my mind! However, it figures....what better way to draw people to the new location!

Anyways, there are lots of memories I will always have of GenCon in Milwaukee...good and bad. One year I ran a Women's Warhammer 40K game and no one could find the miniature gaming hall because they put us over in the Auditorium basement! I remember all of the costume contests in the Plankinton Theater - then they put it over in the one hotel last year and it was incredibly awful with such limited space for spectators and a stage the size of a postage stamp...that was the only year I came in costume, too (as a Rebel Trooper on Saturday)! Kudos to Beret & Kris for being in that particular contest as Princess Leia and Grand Admiral Thrawn. Bad things...yeah, like large smelly people who probably hadn't taken a shower in over 2 weeks and very little artwork for women! But, hey, there was probably more intelligence over those 4 days in that one place than in the rest of the country!

In those 15 years I've made friends who I would only see at GenCon because they live on the left or right coast or places in between but far, far away.....hmmmm, a galaxy far, far away...sorry - just had to do that!

Maybe next year.....

 

DParis: That's interesting; my parents felt that way about the Bristol Renaissance Faire years back when my friends were obsessed involved in it, and they never even really "got" Gen Con. Lol.