It's Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. Many years ago I used to spend Thanksgiving weekends at science fiction conventions, whether in Edmonton, Calgary, Banff... and we even put one on here in Red Deer one year.
I just realized that this weekend will be 40 years since I met Orson Scott Card, who was the Guest of Honor for NonCon in 1983.
It's also 40 years since the sociology course I took at Red Deer College - taught by Dr. Brigham Young Card, who actually suggested that I write my term paper on science fiction. He said he was related to OSC (I don't recall if he said it was an uncle-nephew connection or a cousin connection), that OSC would be in Calgary that weekend, and if I went, I'd get to meet him.
I didn't mention that I'd already planned to go, and thanked him for the suggestion. I was still feeling a bit uncertain about Dr. Card, since that assignment in which we had to rank a very long list of things as to their importance in our daily lives. My score for religion was so low that it was in the negative numbers, and he'd used this as his reason to call me to his office and then oh-so-helpfully offered to lend me a stack of books about Mormonism, wanting me to read them and come back so he could answer the many questions he expected I'd have.
Proselytizing is something instructors aren't supposed to do. I could have reported him for that, and the friends I'd mentioned this to said I should.
However, I opted to wait and see if there were any consequences for refusing his offer (I said quite truthfully that I had a full load of courses, including French, and would not have time for extra reading).
No retaliation happened, so I never reported him. As for Orson Scptt Card, I went to the convention, met him, he signed the book I'd brought, and... yikes. that's got to be one of the most ridiculous autographs ever. Most authors write something like "Best wishes, _______" and the date. Card opted for nonsense.
Anyway, as term papers went, that's got to be one of the easiest ones I ever had to do. I wrote most of it off the top of my head.
There's another reason I remember the Friday of that particular weekend. I was also taking physical geography, and we had labs on Thursdays. The instructor allowed us to work on it in-class on Thursday and if we needed more time, we could take it home and finish - as long as we turned it in by noon on Friday.
I knew I wouldn't be in class on Friday, since the class started at 3 pm and the Greyhound left around 1 pm. So... suitcase in one hand and my lab assignment in the other, I tried to sneak over to his office in the morning to slip the assignment under his office door...
... which opened, and he was standing there, looking at me in surprise. He said good morning, took my lab assignment, then looked at my suitcase. He said, "You're carrying a bit more than usual today,"
Normally I carried my books and binders around the campus in 2-3 shopping bags. This time I had a suitcase full of costume stuff, plus the usual that people take for a long weekend. So I told him I was going to Calgary for the weekend and wouldn't be in class. He seemed to assume it was a case of going home for Thanksgiving, and wasn't concerned about me catching up. I usually read ahead, as that was my favorite class that year.
