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33 Unity Ave Belmont

by Anthony R. Lewis

Suford and I lived there for 9 years (1968-1977) when we moved to Natick. After we moved out, Jim Hudson and Ellen Franklin moved in. Thus, for well over a decade this venue was the site of NESFA meetings and parties.

It was here in 1968, that the first issue of Locus (Trial 1) was run off in the living room on the mimeo machine that Suford and I were given as a wedding present. Locus (with tri-editors Charlie Brown, Ed Meskys, and Dave Vanderwerf) was originally a newsletter who purpose was to support the Boston Worldcon bid. Because Suford had been in an auto accident immediately after our marriage, this was the lead story. Future issues, unfortunately, followed with more stories of "accident fandom."

It was here that we put together, in one night, all the registration packets for Noreascon 1. This was complicated by the fact that the plastic buttons we had ordered from Germany (via Mario Boris Ivanovich Bosnyak–Heicon [1970 Worldcon] Secretary and 1971 TAFF delegate) lost their metal pins in transit. So, we had to heat the pins on the stove and press them into the plastic. Hal Clement was the most skilled at this.

It was here that Mike Saler first suggested that Noreascon 2 institute a Hugo for non-fiction–one of the few new categories that lasted.

It was here that Isaac Asimov brought Donald Menzel to a Hallowe’en party. Professor Menzel had to leave early and when we expressed our regrets, his response was, "if you leave early, you get first choice of the coats." Menzel was Harry Stubbs’ (Hal Clement’s) Masters Thesis Advisor at Harvard. Menzel also wrote articles for Gernsback’s scientifiction magazines and wanted to sell fiction. Hal didn’t know this and took his pseudonym (Clement is his middle name) to avoid offending Menzel.

Jim and Ellen continued this until 1983. They were later divorced. Unfortunately, Jim wound up in Wisconsin, Ellen eventually on the West Coast where she was, for a while, in charge of marketing for Wizards of the Coast.

(This is a footnote to Tony’s article on House of Roy.)