1995 - 12/1995 Meeting

Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Update: 10/26/10/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 02/28/08.

HOLIDAY PARTY / POT LUCK DINNER

Discussion: THE LION KING as Mythology

Video: THE LION KING

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: December 9, 1995.

Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 21.

Meeting Program: Holiday Party and Pot Luck Dinner.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

Despite snow, threat of sleet, and the cancellation of our scheduled guest, the December 9, 1995 meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was indeed held at the Cultural Center in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

The earliest arrivals were Philip De Parto, Donald Mc Farland, Adrian and Thomas Pope, and Pamela Webber. Thanks go to them and to everyone else involved in the set up or clean up.

The light turnout limited the variety of foods present. Don's chili was the hit of the event. Other main or side dishes included chicken cutlets by Sharon Archer, meatballs by Bobbie Bauer, chicken ravioli soup by Charles Garofalo, a chicken casserole by Adrian and Tom Pope and a tray of vegetables and dip by Pam Webber. Desserts included brownies by Sharon, homemade cookies by Charles Gehm and Judy York, cinnamon rolls by John Upton and chocolate cookies by Pam.

Conversations overheard included Pat Nash, Tom Pope, and Judy York realizing that they had all attended Queens College at around the same time; Sharon Archer, Philip De Parto, Steve Ferrera, and Roy Greenberg having a mini Memory Alpha reunion; Sharon, Don Mc Farland, and Judy talking about computers; and Chris Nash and Adrian Pope discussing having worked for different divisions of the same company.

No one expressed an interest in watching the rerun of STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9. At 7:30 PM, we popped in Walt Disney's THE LION KING into the VCR to keep the Nash kids entertained and to provide a frame of reference for our guest speaker's talk on "THE LION KING as mythology." Only the Nash kids and one or two others formed the audience when the movie started, but nearly everyone was watching by the halfway point.

It was after 9:00 PM and we had still heard nothing from our scheduled guest speaker. We were just about to start the meeting when he phoned, saying that he had returned home after hitting a massive tie up on the Garden State Parkway.

We then went to Plan B, which was having Chris and Pat Nash, with varying degrees of input from Mary and Elizabeth, lead the discussion. It was a mellow, wide ranging exchange of views that drew most of the group in at one time or another.

Several people deserve praise for loyalty above and beyond the call of duty. These include Steve Ferrara who left straight from work near Livingston and arrived around 8:45 PM; Roy Greenberg who made a mad dash to the party after a chess tournament in Hackettstown; Russ De Negris, who showed up to the cancelled afternoon AD&D game and copied the directions from Scott Schmitt's newsletter to show up for his first meeting; Robert Yeager who had to work but sent a cranberry bread via the Nashes; and Judy York and Charles Gehm, Philip De Parto forgot to call back with directions but who puzzled out how to get there from New York despite it all.

With lots of left over snacks, and hot chocolate and tea being provided by Roy Greenberg as well as brewed coffee by Philip De Parto, there was no reason to make our usual post-meeting excursion to the Horizon Diner.