First and Only Weekly Online Fanzine Devoted to the Life and Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs Since 1996 ~ Over 10,000 Webpages and Webzines in Archive |
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First and Only Weekly Online Fanzine Devoted to the Life and Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs Since 1996 ~ Over 10,000 Webpages and Webzines in Archive |
DEJAH’S DIARY 
ECOF
2000: CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE
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| The Saturday evening banquet offered fare suitable for both grazers and carnivores. Dining among mangani tribes is a memorable experience. Taking a cue from those around me, I was soon snarling possessively over my alloted portion of dripping meat and other morsels gathered from the hills of Tennessee. The larger voracious bulls lost no time in returning to the site of the kill to pick clean the carcass. |
| But the highlight of this savage event was the pyrotechnics display.
We had been encouraging von
Horst to make an appearance on his unicycle while juggling flaming
batons.
So our first thought when the room erupted into flames after the main course was that the entertainment had begun! |
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As the smoke cleared though, we realized it was Hilda, the inn-keeper, bearing her masterpiece -- a flaming dessert. Unfortunately, our ever-vigilante host, OJT had not been warned of this piece de resistance in advance. His favourite silk tie caught fire while he was stomping on the dessert tray in an effort to douse the flames. |  |
| After coffee was served, a steady stream of mangani bulls knuckled their way to the earthen mound to deliver their own distinctive grunts and growls. The most impressive bull was, of course, the leader of the tribe, Tublat, who shattered the still of the Tennesee night with his horrific victory cry. This sound, obviously, is unknown in the Tennessee hills, as shrieks of terror and a crash of silver and glass suddenly emanated from the kitchen area. |
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Guest of honour, Mary Burroughs, took the opportunity to propose a toast of thanks to Jim Thompson for the incredible job he had done in hosting the Moon Maid ECOF. She assured everyone that this event would generate many fond memories of the friendships recently made in ERBdom. Jim in turn responded by thanking Mary and Barry Stubbersfield for travelling so many miles to attend the gathering. |  |
| OJT also thanked the many volunteers for the work they had done: JoN for helping to prepare Mary's JCB booklet ~ Tarak, JoN and Huck for their ERB comics panel~ Bruce "Abner Perry" Wood for the work he had done on the Moon Maid theme ~ and all the others who had worked behind the scenes. |
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Ken Webber received the ERB Lifetime Achievement Award in absentia. Apparently he had been abducted before the feast by the treacherous Predator and his tribe. |  |
| Satiated at last, the full-bellied tribe waddled to a clearing where I witnessed an incredible display of posturing and posing amid the brilliant flash of lightning bolts cast by ara. JoN, recently accepted to the ERBapa waiting list looked on enviously as this elite group of ERB scholars posed for their photo. We were both excited however, when Tarak called us over to pose with the members of the equally elite THB Listers. |
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Henry Franke kept appearing and disappearing. He searched most of the weekend for his lost eye glasses. Even Bob O'Malley joined in the fruitless search. By Monday we noticed that Henry had expanded his search to include the University of Louisville campus. Perhaps he can let us know if his quest was successful. |  |
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Seated beside Ghak. I talked and talked... he was just so interested in all my stories. We talked about the elimination of dust bunnies, my kids, that cute little sun dress I saw in downtown Clarksville, my Amtorian Gardens, the possibilities for a pork brain franchise, recipes for turnip greens and collards...and so on and so on... |
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After the lengthy photo session, OJT made the rounds with
his traditional guest book signing.
Tom
Yeates made an artistic notation while JoN listed ALL
of his websites, completely filling the margins...
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In the course of the evening, I looked in occasionally on the BB
board meeting. Members were holding up remarkably well in this marathon
endurance test. They kept hoping that Hilda would take pity and
consent to providing breakfast! Alas... that was not to be. I never did
hear what they finally accomplished.
Rumour was that they were still sequestered when we left Sunday afternoon. |
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Sunday afternoon saw the departure of most of the ECOF attendees.
While Sue and I spent Sunday morning bragging about and comparing our respective anatomical renderings by Tom Yeates, engineer Abner Perry rounded up his R&R crew for boarding the last train from Clarksville. |
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Tarak had invited us to ride with him to visit George's ERB
collection in Louisville.
As I waited for Tarak to finish packing his huckster and auction loot, I decided to surprise him with a souvenir of his adventure in the Hachland jungle. The gigantic plant that mangled THB's truck bumper will menace no more! |
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After many prolonged adieus, JoN and I, Tarak, Tracy and Laurence
headed north for Louisville. The first stop along the way was the
Corvette
museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was a thrill to sit behind the
wheel of the latest edition Stingray.
BUT! I just couldn't seem to get the hang of shifting gears... |
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what kinda place is this?" |
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Next morning, I escorted the ERB commandos on their pilgrimage to the Ekstrom Library on the University of Louisville campus. The heart of this library is George McWhorter's world famous ERB Memorial Collection. GTM has donated and maintains this fine collection in memory of his mother, Nell Dismukes McWhorter. |
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At 10:30 George innocently welcomed the ERB commandos but he
soon rued having made the invitation. George, ever the great host, answered
all our questions and shared a constant parade of rare and unusual ERB
items. He never hesitated in allowing us to handle or photograph rare items
usually locked in display cases.
By noon however, the antics of this unruly quintet had pushed him to the limit. He almost did something rash with ERB's straight razor... but I restrained him in time. |
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JoN and Tarak
continued dueling with their notorious digital cameras. Many of their pictures
are, or will be, displayed on their respective websites.
After 6 hours in this Oparian treasure vault, I finally managed to drag the two tawny-haired ones away so we could catch our flight. But...WHERE did we park the truck??? |
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| After trekking through a maze of jungle pathways, Tarak's uncanny sense of direction and homing instincts eventually led us back to his Toledo flyer. THB kindly dropped us off at the Louisville airport to catch our flight back to the northland and he headed back to the wilds of Ohio. |
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See our ECOF Scrapbook sites for larger versions of most of the photos featured in Dejah's Diary Parts I-IV.
Many thanks to Tarak for sharing some of his photos for Dejah's
Diary.
All photos with a BW or TK prefix are courtesy of THB.
Be sure to visit our other ECOF 2000 features in ERBzine:
ERBzine: 0371: ECOF 2000 ~ Arrival
ERBzine: 0372: ECOF 2000 ~ Hucksters & Auctioneers
ERBzine: 0373: ECOF 2000 ~ Comics Panel
ERBzine: 0374: ECOF 2000 ~ Thompson Bar-B-Q
ERBzine: 0375: ECOF 2000 ~ Thompson ERB Collection
ERBzine: 0376: ECOF 2000 ~ Mary Burroughs
ERBzine: 0377: ECOF 2000 ~ Tarak & Predator Battle
ERBzine: 0378: ECOF 2000 ~ Tom Yeates At Work: Dejah & JoN I
ERBzine: 0379: ECOF 2000 ~ Tom Yeates At Work: Dejah & JoN II
ERBzine: 0380: ECOF 2000 ~ Banquet
ERBzine: 0381: ECOF 2000 ~ Group Photos
ERBzine: 0382: ECOF 2000 ~ Jim's Book Signing and Catalogue
ERBzine: 0383: ECOF 2000 ~ Brunch
ERBzine: 0384: ECOF 2000 ~ Farewells
ERBzine: 0385: ECOF 2000 ~ Dejah's Diary - Day I
ERBzine: 0386: ECOF 2000 ~ Dejah's Diary - Day II
ERBzine: 0387: ECOF 2000 ~ Dejah's Diary - Day III
ERBzine: 0388: ECOF 2000 ~ Dejah's Diary - Day IV
ERBzine: 0389: Laurence Dunn: Elvis, Tarzan, Superman…!
