{"id":919,"date":"2012-03-06T18:35:03","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T18:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/?p=919"},"modified":"2021-03-18T12:35:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T12:35:53","slug":"centennial-geo-day-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/centennial-geo-day-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"Heinlein Centennial – Day Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: The below account was written in 2007, days after the event in question. Excerpts have appeared here and there, but this is the first time the entire piece has been published.  –Geo Rule
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Day Zero – 7\/5\/2007<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, first you have to understand that I met my tundra blossom (this is what a California boy calls a Minnesota girl) in Prodigy\u2019s online Heinlein Forum in early 1992, and Deb and I have been married since 1995. None of the rest of my Centennial weekend really makes much sense without those basic facts to revolve around. Even back then we had one eye on this weekend, and there was never any doubt about where we\u2019d be.  Robert\u2019s boyhood home of Kansas City, Missouri, with his birthplace of Butler just down the road a piece, was always going to be ground zero for us this weekend. Any time the subject came up, and possibilities explored, our contribution to the discussion was always the same \u2013\u201cDunno where you\u2019ll be, cobber, but you\u2019ll find us in Kansas City even if we\u2019re the only ones there.\u201d Happily, we most certainly weren\u2019t \u201cthe only ones there\u201d, and below is my trip report of what I took to calling \u201cjust partying with 600 of our closest friends\u201d.<\/p>\n

We arrive from Minnesota (yes, Minnesota girl won that one eventually) by car Thursday afternoon the day before the con officially started. While standing in line to talk to the concierge at the Hyatt (most of the programming, it turns out, will be at the Hyatt), we notice Peter Scott, one of the organizers, standing there as well. We chat for a bit, and it comes to mind that we first met Peter at ConJose in 2002, on a Society-organized trip to the Heinlein archives at UC Santa Cruz. Given one of our major tasks here this weekend is to launch the online version of the Heinlein archives, the feeling of having completed a cycle is pretty strong.<\/p>\n

After checking in, we head on over to the Westin (the second hotel, and where most major events and the dealer room is located) on what the locals call \u201cthe Link\u201d, a glass enclosed skyway connecting major portions of downtown Kansas City. Many of the convention goers will start referring to it as \u201cthe habitrail\u201d or even \u201cthe greenhouse\u201d. Yep, KC in July is darned hot and muggy, and even with air conditioning every few feet, \u201cthe Link\u201d is quite toasty most of the weekend. We run into Keith Kato, another of the organizers, on the way. \u201cHow\u2019s it going, Keith?\u201d \u201cUp to my ass in alligators!\u201d \u201cWell, when they get to your chin, sell!\u201d<\/p>\n

We make it over to the Westin, and get registered without incident (badges 1051 and 1052, with numbering having started at 1000). However, \u201cGala Dinner Tickets\u201d are running late, and these we will have to return for at a later time. It actually turns out to be Saturday afternoon for those, but \u201cJIT dinner tickets\u201d don\u2019t cause us any particular hardship.<\/p>\n

\"Geo,

Geo Rule, Deb Houdek Rule, Audrey Gifford, Jim Gifford<\/p><\/div>\n

We spot Jim (another of the organizers) and Audrey Gifford, and now \u201cold home week\u201d is really getting into gear, as Audrey is also one of the Heinlein Forum originals from the early days on Prodigy before there even was a \u201cWorld Wide Web\u201d.  The funny story there is Jim and Audrey met at a Heinlein Forum lunch in Sacramento, CA that I organized in the spring of 1994. Fast forward to 1997, and Deb and I made arrangements to go see the new Starship Troopers movie with Jim (let\u2019s not talk too much about the movie, \u2018kay?), and he shows up with a date we weren\u2019t expecting. Not having heard her talk yet (I\u2019m actually better with voices than faces), I whisper to my wife, \u201cShe looks a bit like Audrey, doesn\u2019t she?\u201d, and the lady, having overheard me, responds with a voice I recognize (honest!), \u201cI am<\/strong> Audrey, you idiot!\u201d Yep, Heinlein Women \u2013I\u2019m just grateful they let us share the planet with them.  Not too long after the movie double-date there was a wedding that included a reading from Glory Road<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We spot David Silver, president of THS, chatting up some folks near registration and stop to say \u2018hi\u2019. Madam Secretary Jane is there as well, bubbly and bustling as always.<\/p>\n

Next, we head into the pre-convention reception which will feature a reading from Robert\u2019s biography by its author, Bill Patterson.  Say hi to Bill, and run into Robert James, PhD as well.  \u201cDoc\u201d James is another Heinlein scholar and educator, and provided lesson plans for both Tunnel in the Sky<\/em> and Have Space Suit \u2013Will Travel<\/em> which are included on the Society\u2019s Educator\u2019s CD (all you teachers and librarians reading this have one of those, right? They\u2019re free, you know, and can be requested from the Society\u2019s website). He\u2019s also nearly the exact same age as I (one of us is about a month older than the other, and I honestly don\u2019t remember which), with the result that we have very similar experiences in how we encountered the works of Robert Heinlein.<\/p>\n

As we sat waiting for Bill to start reading, I noticed another gentleman at our table \u2013J. Neil Schulman, the author\/editor of The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana<\/em>. I\u2019d first downloaded Neil\u2019s book electronically from a dial-up bulletin board in the early 1990s before it had been published in hardcopy, and then reviewed it in The Galactic Citizen<\/em>, official organ of the Heinlein Forum that Deb founded and edited for a few years. So of course I had to say \u2018hi\u2019 to Neil, this being the first time we\u2019d met in person, though we\u2019d been having the occasional electronic correspondence for more than ten years.  Having just settled back from chatting up Neil, a hand taps me on the shoulder. The owner of the hand is J. Buckner Hightower, one of the trustees of the Heinlein Prize Trust. He wants to introduce himself to Deb and I, as he\u2019s another member of the extended network of Heinleiners that we\u2019ve talked to and worked with electronically that we are now getting to meet in person as well.<\/p>\n

Are you getting a sense yet of the aura of a family reunion? Good, because that aura permeated the event from beginning to end \u2013this was the family reunion of Heinlein\u2019s Children and descendants, and if not every single cousin was there, at least enough of us were to make that a credible description. I promise I won\u2019t inflict on you the name of every single person we met or talked to that weekend, though the name dropping will continue to give you an accurate sense of the variety of Heinleindom assembled.<\/p>\n

The day ends with us catching up with Audrey and Jim over dinner; Audrey is delightfully Audrey, as always, and Jim has an advanced case of \u201csenior convention staff twitch\u201d as successive unresolved tasks force their way to the top of his consciousness one after another.<\/p>\n

 Next<\/strong>: Heinlein Centennial – Day One<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Below is my trip report of what I took to calling \u201cjust partying with 600 of our closest friends\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-centennialreport"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8792,"href":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions\/8792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heinleinsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}