How Times Have Changed

All photos by John Andrews

from the Orycon 25th Anniversary CD

Before there was Orycon, the local science fiction and fantasy convention, of which we are coming up on #34, there was the Symposium. This was a one-day deal held at at local U, Portland State, as I recall, which was essentially an introduction and tune-up for the first Orycon.


This was in 1978, which was the first year I was here, fresh from Louisiana. Several of my short stories had been published by then, though I was still two and some years away from my first novel.


The venue wasn't large and it wasn't full. The big draws were John "Herb" Varley;  Vonda "Shrimp" McIntyre; F.M. "Buzz" Busby; J.F. "Jesse" Bone; Mildred "Bubbles" Broxon; and John "I won't live to see fifty" Shirley. And me.


Jeez Louise, I still had the hippie haircut ...


By the time the second Orycon rolled around, my hair was maybe a bit shorter–here I am, below, right, interviewing the Guest of Honor, the late, great Friz Leiber–but I was still fifteen pounds heavier than I am now.

And I'm not positive, but I think that's a young George R.R. Martin below, watching Fritz smoke. People did that in hotels on panels back then, they smoked cigarettes ...

Ah, the good old days ...