I'll Have It My Way!

Our guest blogger today is anonymous, but her name rhymes with Badhika! She has some tidbits from the early planning stages of the convention!

About a year ago, when this particular journey started to plan the convention for July 2009, I sent out a survey to MAUD-L so that we could plan the convention to the desires of a “focus group” of people who were so clearly crazy about Betsy-Tacy and Maud Hart Lovelace that they had subscribed to daily chatter about her. As I look back on some of the survey results, I chucked at some of my favorite ones….

Question:
How many people in your party will register for the event?

One answer:
I won't come unless I can register as one and one half persons, as my neuroses are Very Sensitive about being uncounted.

Question:

What months would be best for you to attend the convention?

Answer: I won't come unless the event takes into consideration the relative humidity and its effect on my hair.

Question: We are deciding between the Holiday Inn (the previous site of the Melborn hotel) and other hotels in the neighborhood. Any thoughts?

Answer: I wont come unless there are chocolates on my pillow every time I return to my room after being away for a period not shorter than 4 minutes. Also, I won't come unless we can go where I want at the times which match my admittedly unusual circadian rhythms.

Another answer: I hope to encounter the ghost of Mrs. Poppy.

Question: What activities would you like during the convention?

Answer: I won't come unless I can have a sedan chair for the walk, with 4 well-muscled, virile bearers wearing only sandals and breechclouts. The breechclouts must coordinate with my eye color. The sandals should be a vegan-friendly material.

Another answer: Maybe a bonfire with weiner and marshmallow roasting and buckets of cocoa one night, to simulate the ice skating bonfires and the other outdoor outings (My note: In July??)

Another answer: We need Perfectly Awful Girl activities after the evening events are over!

Note: We do in fact have these scheduled for those who want to see what Tony and his bad crowd might have been doing at the pool halls…..

Another answer: I want to see “BT and MHL: True Hollywood Story: A presentation”

Question: What type of activities would you like on Sunday morning:

Answer: A pagan event where someone dances widdershins around a clay sculpture of Tony sitting backwards on a chair

But the best question for bringing out the group was the question on whether we should have food that was listed in the books for the meals or foods that are more modern and seasonally appriopriate:

- I am allergic to milk, butter & cheese so as long as there are alternatives (if there are any...).

- Onion sandwiches and Sunday Night Lunch a must! (Note: We will have them!)
- Not too many spicy dishes--I have allergies.
- Vegetables - please include vegetables! Many of the BT food really don't go over to well in the 21st century
- Anything but frog legs!
- I want to try frogs legs!!!

Well, we have used the survey results often over the past several months to guide us (as much as possible and, no, there is not a pagan event scheduled!) so the event promises to be wonderful and there will be something for everyone!

Happiest Day of My Life!

I don't know why I hadn't done the math before this, but apparently the day that Harry Potter XI opens and the first day of the Convention will be occurring on the very same day!

Because the voices in my head compelled me to check, I have figured out that I will be viewing HP6 at either the Carmike Stadium 6 or Cinemark Movie 8 in Mankato. But looking at their current schedules I see that the first showing either one has today is 4 in the afternoon.

Is this the sort of thing that goes on in Minnesota? No early afternoon movies? I already live in fear that I may be hit by a bus before the convention AND that I might be hit by a bus before I get to see HP6. The fact that both of those things are happening on the same day is makeing me fearful of all public transportation!

Anyone up for a midnight movie Thursday night in Minneapolis?

Minneapolis Tour!

Here is guest blogger and all 'round peach (and fig!) Julie Chuba with some information about the tour of Betsy's Minneapolis after the convention. I took a tour with Julie and some other Betsy-Philes two summers ago (stay tuned to read more) and it was tremendous fun. We did look a bit like Betsy and Joe checking out the Canoe Place house, but our motives were not as pure! I am sure there will be much more decorum at this wonderfully organized event!

Here's Julie:

The Minneapolis walking tour of Maud's neighborhood will take place Tuesday, July 21st. I just got a lot more information from the last Maud Hart Lovelace Society meeting which was held this past Monday (April 13). As soon as I make dinner and clean up tonight I will be devoting my evening and probably wee hours of the morning to updating the convention web site with more details.

I will also get a final draft of the registration form sent to the beautiful Jennifer Davis Kay who has so graciously agreed to put it into a pdf form for me as I don't have the software to do that.

But a quick little teaser here:

We'll meet Tuesday morning at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which Maud attended at one time (although this is not the location of the church when Maud attended).
There will be a muffins/rolls/coffee (can't guarantee the latter will be made with egg, shell and all), then a short program, with remarks by MHLS members, and a presentation by the Maud History Player from the MN History Museum. There will also be a few Maud-related displays.

Then we board a vintage bus from the MN Transportation Museum (I don't know what vintage it will be--I just hope it's older than I am, or I'll feel bad than I can now be labeled "vintage") and drive over to Maud's neighborhood ( just about a mile or two away), where we'll disembark for the walking tour.

We'll see the Bow St. apmt., the Canoe Place house, and the homes of Julia, Margaret, and Jim Hart (Maud's uncle), and the Gluek Mansion, which is mentioned in the BT companion. We'll be able to go inside the Jim Hart house, Margaret's house, and the Gluek mansion. We are still working on getting inside the Bow St. apmt., but so far haven't had any response from the current occupant. Unable to go inside the Canoe Place house as the owner is a bit too difficult for us, so we'll need to be very careful about just viewing that house from the sidewalk, and not going into the yard (BARB).

We'll have a short program with a few surprises at the park where the Ray house once stood, before heading back to the church for a lunch.

Cost for the entire event will be $30 (including lunch) for adults; $15 for kids 16 and younger.

More details to follow as soon as possible!

To Murmur or not to Murmur?

I am torn, non-existant readers, on the issue of Murmuring Lake. Or more precisely, the Point Pleasant side-trip in the convention. There are two options, the food is supposed to be amazing and the price is right - $18 and I think transportation is included! (If you know for sure please leave a comment. Oh the shameless begging for comments!) I could do the Monday afternoon one with little difficulty, but I am afraid I will be too exhausted! Feel free to comment and talk me into it!

I have been to Murmuring Lake once before and I have cut and pasted my Madison Lake story from 2002 below!

[We had some adventures, then got some snacks and went to the cemetary to visit Maud...]

Then off we went to Murmuring Lake. I think the less said about the drive out there, the better. Maire and Nicole were incredibly kind and kept saying things like, "That map is nutty!" and "It could have happened to anyone!" But there is no getting around the fact that we left Mankato at about 3 o'clock and at 3:20 we saw a sign that said, "Welcome to Mankato!" Needless to say it is not necessary to drive through Mankato twice to get to Murmuring Lake.

I had called "Pleasant Point" which was on the site of the Inn (also originally called Pleasant Point Inn) to see if they had a restaurant.
The fellow I talked to said they had steak frys on Fridays or maybe it was steak fries. Either way it was not Friday so we were out of luck. Luckily I hadn't finished my bag of treats so I dined on them. The site of the Inn is now a campground. It is a nice, shady one but not the Lodge and
bungalow set up I was hoping for.

The lake seemed sunnier than I expected. It was a perfect day. Warm, but not hot. A nice breeze. I always pictured the lake as smaller with over hanging trees all over the shore. More like a New Hampshire lake. However it was big and open. Very pretty.

We decided to try to find Jule Ray's girlhood home. We searched all around the shore and saw nothing that looked like the picture in the companion. We went back out to the main road to see if we could access the other side of the lake when I spotted a driveway with two rocks at the end that looked like they had writing on them. "Hey you two, "I piped up from the back seat where I had been sent like the naughty non-vampire expert I am, "One of those rocks says 'Maud Hart Lovelace', Do you think it could be a clue?"

They agreed that it could very well be and we pulled over and piled out of the car. Sure enough it was Austin Park. There were poplar trees lining the driveway and a nice house at the end of the drive. I said I was going to go to the door and ask if I could tape the view of the lake. Nicole and
Maire said they were going to guard the car. Hmmmm....

I went to the door. it was open and I could hear the TV. I rang the bell and waited. No one answered the door. I shouted back down the driveway to Nicole and Maire (who were standing facing the road, with their hands casually behind their backs as of to say - "We are only paid to take her for a ride in the country when the men in the white coats say she is feeling
well enough to go.") that I was going to the lake side of the house to see if maybe someone was working in the yard from whom I could ask permission.

Here is where my morals and convictions were tested and found wanting. There was no one in the yard. But I REALLY wanted a picture of the bay window. So I stealthily turned on the video camera, threw caution to the winds, whipped off my lenscap and put the camera to my eye as I spun around 360 degrees to get the full (fast) panorama. Then I went back up the
driveway as if I had not just trespassed. I was comforted by the fact that when I
looked through the screen while I was waiting for someone to answer the door I
saw a wooden carving of what appeared to be Betsy Tacy and Tib on the kitchen
table. So I assume that whoever owns the house would be forgiving...

We drove back down to the water and I was thinking about the swimsuit Ihad tucked in my backpack. How many chances does one get to swim in Murmuring Lake in this lifetime? But did I really want to drive back to Mankato with wet hair? What in the world was I thinking? I asked Maire and Nicole if they minded if I went in for a dip and they did not at all. (I am sure they were thinking, "Thank goodness, now we don't have to keep dumbing down the conversation for her!")

So I went to the car and got my bathing suit out. Where to change?
Between the car doors seemed like the best idea. And then a little old man came by walking his poodle. And his poodle figured out what I was up to and decided to stare at me. So I waited. And the poodle waited. And the old man waited. And I waited. And the poodle waited. And the old man finally figured out that he looked like he was awaiting a strip show and dragged the poodle away... So I changed.

After giving specific videotaping instructions to Nicole ("From the
waist up only, please...") I ran into the water.

It was lovely. The sand was smooth, there were no little fish
carcasses, no rocks, the water was warmish from the hot weather. I did some handstands while Nicole took pictures. (one of which I am hoping to post to picturetrail if I can get it to upload after lunch...) I was so glad I decided to go in.

No one got lost on the ride home. Later I had a lovely dinner with
Nicole in a little Irish bar. Then I went back and had drinks while Guusje, Amy, Kristen W. and Michelle had a lovely dinner at the same place. THEN Amy, Kristen, Nicole and I planned the next convention based on Betsy and the Great World. And you had all better write to Amy to nag her to post the particulars, because it is spectacular!

Wednesday morning it was - Goodbye Mankato and I hate even typing the words...

But you can bet I will be back in 5 years!

Lincoln Park Photo

I am going to try to post to this blog at least twice a week. Of course I have made a typo in every other word and have apparently forgotten completely how to type. This might be my subconscious minds way of telling me that I really should be grading papers right now. So things are going slowly in spite of my good intentions.

One thing that would inspire me to write posts that are more interesting than this one (a task seemingly not that difficult thus far...) would be if you left comments! Even things like, "Good luck not having a boring post next time, Barb!" would be welcome. Everybody loves comments!

This picture is Midge, Maud and Bick (Tib, Betsy and Tacy) at Lincoln Park! It was a link in my last blog post and I decided to highlight it here. I know Maud is in the middle but I am not sure who is who Midge and Bick-wise. I would assume the one on the left is light haired Tib, but the one on the right appears to have tiny little legs - could she be our petite fraulein? See, now you have somthing to comment about! First poster with the right answer gets a prize! (And yes, a feeling of accomplishment is, in fact, a prize...)

Tune in next week for a shocking post about Grandma Slade and her scandelous past!

A Champion!

An email came out on the planning list and it mentioned that the DV blog might need a little update. I thought, "Cheeze whiz, I just updated the doggone thing a minute ago." Imagine my surprise to find out it had been since January! Shocking!

Some updates - apparently the economy is bad. I hadn't heard (she who don't have, don't miss and all that) but apparently people are concerned. So I thought I would list some cost cutting tips for the convention.

First - don't pay to get there! Walk. All the members of the crowd were big walkers. I don't want to hear any of that "Minnesota is a long way away and I live in California!" whining, either. Start early - you'll be fine. Read THE STAND or BOLD SPIRIT for inspiration. You could also hop a freight, but as we all know it can be dangerous and lead to spooney behavior.

Second - hotel rooms are over-rated. Pitch a tent in Lincoln Park and sleep there. Just make sure it is pie-shaped.

Third - don't worry about food - it is included in your registration and is going to be delicious! If you have been eating a lot of Kraft-Mac lately, you are going to thing you died and went to the Murmuring Lake Inn.

In other news, we have a champion over at Harper Collins! Check this out. And take a gander at the icons in her left sidebar to see where she will be this summer.

Possible Gift Shop Items

The Convention Planning Board was getting goofy and one of us (I won't rat her out but her name rhymes with Badhika.) got to suggesting that in addition to shirts and bags we should also maybe get B-T themed Christmas ornaments to offer for sale. This was my response:

Christmas ornaments [Badhika]?
Nope, I need more capitalization and question marks.

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS, [Badhika]????? REALLY?????
There, better...

I want a commemorative butter dish and a knit stocking cap and a convention ottoman.

If we make an ornament that will be all the rage next ornament exchange and then the thank you notes will be off the wall.

"Dear Betsy, I relish the memory of us getting tipsy at the convention. Love, Winona"

"Dear Maid at the Hilton, I told you those conventioneers were a messy bunch to clean up after! Puny and tony, but messy!"

"Dear Mr. Thumbler, the time we shared at the convention will live on in my memory. Love, Mrs. Main-Whittiker. PS: Tell no one."

If you would care to put your pithy bon mots in the comments, I would be thrilled.