I'd meant to do childhood photos and stories on Tuesdays, but once I saw this one, I knew I had to bump my definition of childhood to include my teen years.
This is a photo of a band that was put together solely to play at a science fiction convention. There were actually more members than this, but you get the general idea. Left to right, we have an alien from "V," "Road Warrior"-era Mad Max, Sandahl Bergman's character from Conan the Barbarian (me! thin! with blonde hair!), and an astronaut.
Why, yes, this was in the mid-1980s! How did you guess?
So we played our set, which consisted of songs from the Rocky Horror Picture Show along with regular rock songs with the lyrics rewritten to be science fiction-y. I have mercifully forgotten the specifics.
We finished up quite late and everyone was tired, particularly my boyfriend, the keyboard player (not shown in the photo). He was driving his mom's van, and on the way home he fell asleep at the wheel, veered off the road and hit a light pole. The rest of us were following in our own cars, so we saw the whole thing and stopped.
Once the police arrived, they hauled my boyfriend to jail and towed his van. The rest of us dug out all the money we could find and headed to the police station to bail him out.
Keep in mind that we were all in full costume and makeup and it was NOT Halloween.
As I recall, the police officers we encountered acted as if there was nothing out of the ordinary when they saw us. I did wisely leave my sword in the car.
We managed to bail out my boyfriend and get home before it got too dreadfully late. I'm not sure why we didn't involve anyone's parents; maybe we did and I just don't remember.
Anyway, this should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that my geek cred is well established. I even made that costume myself despite the fact that I neither sew nor do leatherwork as a general rule. In fact, I still have the leather gauntlets, later dyed black for use as heavy metal stagewear.
What was your flavor of teen geekdom?
Okay now that is all kinds of awesome.
Posted by: Kennon | November 06, 2007 at 06:08 AM
Well you've got me beat, as I was never in a band or at a sci-fi convention, but I still think you're awesome.
I was a punk rocker in high school. I still hold true to it. :)
Posted by: super des | November 06, 2007 at 08:25 AM
I am doing general "flashback" posts - not just childhood. Today, I featured my eyebrows. Squee!
Love, love your photo!
Posted by: cagey | November 06, 2007 at 08:26 AM
I just spend my time with D&D, Rolemaster, GURPS, and computer games.
Posted by: Keith Sader | November 06, 2007 at 08:47 AM
Damn you...
Posted by: Pharmgirl | November 06, 2007 at 06:48 PM
My hubby & I have worked security at a science fiction convention (KC Con) years ago. It was a sea of geekdom.
Posted by: Spyder | November 06, 2007 at 07:20 PM
I was very amused by your entry today. I have never been to a Sci-fi Convention, but would love to go. I have to confess that I am the biggest (literally!) Sci-fi geek you might find for a 57 year old female. I love all the Sci-fi channel shows and movies. In fact, when my satellite TV company changed its line-up of channels, and took out my Sci-fi, I opted to the Premium package just to get that one channel. It's about all I watch. I also read Sci-fi almost entirely.
Posted by: SSimon | November 06, 2007 at 07:50 PM
You were too cool. I was a writer geek even back then.
Posted by: Suebob | November 06, 2007 at 10:12 PM
Awesome photo!
Rocky Horror Picture Show! That rocks.
I performed part of that show in drama class, as Magenta.
I was utterly in my place. Scary.
Posted by: Lotus Carroll | November 07, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Wow. This is just great--a great story and a great photo to go with it. You are certainly looking very pleased with yourself. As well you should be!
Posted by: Rozanne | November 08, 2007 at 12:33 AM
Love it!
I was goth-girl. All black from head to foot, clumpy boots, the works. A hard look to bring off in the middle of summer though.
Posted by: Fi | November 10, 2007 at 10:49 PM