Marson 2008: The British Invasion

[naomikritzer]

So, first of all, it was a ton of fun being a Guest of Honor. One of the nicest perks at MarsCon is "Snarky's Cafe," which is like a spinoff consuite restricted to people who are working: vendors, ConCom members, GoHs, and heavy volunteers. This is the second year they've done it. There's a $20 charge for the people who want to eat there, although they comp'ed the GoHs. The woman who runs Snarky's spends the weekend cooking real food, in quantity, three times a day. It's simple stuff, the kind of thing you can cook in crock pots and hot plates in a hotel room, but it's real food, and you can actually have all your meals there. (There are people who manage this in the ConSuite but I am not one of them.) If you're a vendor in the dealer's room and can't come up for lunch, they deliver. I've been telling everyone how awesome it was in the hopes of inspiring imitators at other cons, but it is contingent on someone willing to spend the entire weekend cooking. Anyway, I ate lunch in the hotel restaurant on both Saturday and Sunday, because I wanted to eat with Haddayr, but the rest of my meals I had at Snarky's. And thank goodness I could, because the hotel restaurant is really slow, and there's not much else close by, and my windows for dinner were narrow.

And I got to be a performance judge at the Masquerade, which meant I got a front-row seat without having to start standing in line an hour ahead of time.

It was awesome.

But the really interesting part was Saturday night.

As I understand it, one of the ConCom members is an expat Brit, and on Saturday afternoon in the lobby she ran into a man in a kilt -- an actual Scotsman in a regimental kilt. She started chatting with him and found out that he was the Sergeant Major of a group (I'm sure there's a more technical term than "group," but I'm not even certain of his rank) of British soldiers who were on their way to desert training in Nevada. Their flight had been cancelled and they were stuck for the night in Minneapolis. She suggested he let them come to the con. He initially refused, but then thought it over and agreed to check it out. Apparently the con looked like fairly harmless fun, because he decided to let them come up. (Though apparently, normally they would also have been dressed in kilts; he had them change into their desert camo before they even arrived at the hotel.)

They all picked up badges, and headed for the party floor.

And....they had a blast. They drank a lot, not surprisingly, but generally behaved themselves. At first they roamed in packs, but as the evening went on and they found people to talk to they scattered around. Quite a few of them gravitated to the Tardis Tea Party, a British-themed party complete with British (well, Irish) beer, plus good cheese, and tea. (They were using American tea bags, but fortunately I think the soldiers were a lot more interested in the beer.)

The Sergeant Major also came to the party floor to keep an eye on things, in full dress kilt. (In addition to heading off kilt-flipping incidents, having the men change into their desert camo made the commanding officer instantly recognizable and visible. And no one was going to flip his kilt; he was both very likeable and slightly intimidating.) Over the course of the evening, he stopped off at every single party room to thank people for being so kind and welcoming to his men. He did the same at closing ceremonies.

He was unspecific about where they'd been (the rumor said Afghanistan) and where they were going (everyone figured desert training = Iraq), but he said they'd been through hell, and were going back to hell, and that the kindness of the people at the con meant a lot to all of them.

It was a fascinating dynamic to me on a number of levels.

First, this was fandom at its best. I think the invitation was issued pretty impulsively, and an onslaught of British soldiers was the last thing anyone had expected for the weekend. Nonetheless, people were genuinely excited about the unexpected guests, and everyone was welcoming and friendly, kind and respectful, and tolerant of misunderstandings.

Second, I think there's a secret belief among many fans that if the mundanes would just relax and quit thinking about what nerds we all are to do this sort of thing and how much cooler they are than we are, they would have a great time at a con, too. So it was neat to see that actually happen. I'm sure some of these men read or watch SF, but none, so far as I heard, had ever been to an SF con before. They didn't snicker at the costumes or the passionate love of comics / Star Trek / FireFly / Dr. Who; they looked around with wonder and fascination, and they really did have a great time.

Third, while there are always con virgins (that term clearly amused the hell out of the Sergeant Major) at any con, they're not usually so visible or so numerous.

Anyway, it made for a really different sort of Saturday night than you usually experience at a con. But in a way that was kind of magical as well as being really strange and unexpected.

(And yes, of course I was curious whether any of them had served with Harry, but I didn't ask, and I heard no rumors one way or the other.)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/aseop_/]

That's a hilarious story. I have a stereotype that a lot of fans are free thinkers, or anti-establishment, or just a little different, so I'm not sure how well that would mix with military types, but it's wonderful to see two different groups mix so well and enjoy themselves. Thanks for sharing the story with us, I hope you get more GoH invitations in the future!

[jiawen]

In my experience, a lot of fans are military folks. But then, I hang out with a lot of gamers.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

Yeah; I've met far more military people in fandom than outside of it, myself.

[naomikritzer]

Ditto. There are also a startling number of free-thinking anti-establishment just-a-little-different fans who are also ex-military.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

That is *awesome*.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

(I meant the soldiers, but actually, Snarky's Cafe sounds fabulous too.)

[jiawen]

I'm curious how Seven's book delivery worked out.

The Sergeant Major had a remarkably American accent, I thought. From what little I heard, anyway.

It was good seeing you there! Sorry I was caught up in that Zar game. I didn't mean to be rude.

[naomikritzer]

Seven, who rocks, arrived with the books a little before 1pm. And then bought five of them herself. I also sold three more. I may suggest to next year's ConCom that they arrange a way to sell writer GoH books in the future, the same way they set up CD sales. I'm guessing that Dreamhaven would be perfectly willing to supply them with the books, the way they do at Diversicon.

And no problem about the Zar game. It was good to see you!

[jiawen]

That suggestion is a very good idea. It seems like Eric H. is in pretty good with the MarsCon concomm (so's my judgment based on the fact that Krushenko's gets the biggest suite), so it seems like he might be able to help. Also, if you need contact information for Lisa, let me know.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

When I saw Seven on Sunday it looked as though one of the Brits had started to write a book on the exposed portions of her flesh. :)

[rarelylynne.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a great time as a GoH. Yay!

Hmmm... Soldiers....

[(Anonymous)]

I spent about 7 hours talking to one of the soldiers and he said they were headed to Arizona to train because you can't fire live artillary in the UK cause of the lack of open deserted area. Then they were headed to Afghanistan for 6 months. Funny though... I asked about 10 of the soldiers if they knew the "Sargent Major" and none of them knew who he was. Actually he gave them all business cards with a picture of him in his uniform and a car with his contact info on it. Can't see him doing that if he was actually there commander.

Maybe he was just in charge of one of the other groups then the groups all the guys I was chillin' with were from.

-shrug-

It was pretty awesome anyway!

Re: Hmmm... Soldiers....

[naomikritzer]

Huh. Fascinating.

I know very little about exactly how the U.S. military works, let alone the British military, so I have no clue what the likely connection was. Maybe a liaison between the U.S. military and the British men who come over here to train?

Re: Hmmm... Soldiers....

[(Anonymous)]

That would make a lot of sense. I didn't even thing of that. I guess they would probably have someone here to help them with details and to get where they're going but the soldiers probably wouldn't have known them.

-ponders- I hope that's the case otherwise he was a liar and he seemed pretty nice to be a liar. :)

[kellymccullough.livejournal.com]

So I was going to post a bit on this at Wyrdsmiths, but you've done a much better job of it than I would have. I think it would be cool if you mirrored this post over there.

[springbok1.livejournal.com]

Now I wish I'd come back to MarsCon Saturday night. The RAF guys had just started to arrive when I left the hotel. The show I went to ran late, and I was convinced that you and Alis were probably both close to calling it a night (and didn't have anyone else's number) so I just went to bed instead of calling. Oh well.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

I don't think they were RAF, since that stands for Royal Air Force, and these were, from what I understand, group troops, and Scottish ones at that.

[springbok1.livejournal.com]

When they were coming in, someone referred to them as RAF. But, I'm pretty unacquainted with the specifics of military hierarchy and branches, so I certainly don't doubt they were something else.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

It was a helluva good time.

[szvan.livejournal.com]

To clear up the confusion, or maybe add to it, this was a mixed military group. There were guys (and one woman) with Union Jacks on their sleeves. They were not Scottish. The Sergeant Major was either Scottish or from the north from his accent, which was largely suppressed when he called across the room. The tartan he wore was Black Stewart, which is the tartan of their commanding officer.

There were also a handful of RAF in the crowd. They were the ones in a fairly traditional camo instead of desert. My understanding is that the majority of the troops were artillery, although I can't read insignia well enough to tell for myself.

I'm guessing it was a mixed group of volunteer specialists from across the UK. I'd have asked more, but the Sergeant Major was busy flirting and the rest were having too much fun for me to want to "talk shop."

[szvan.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I keep forgetting to mention it, but the story you read was really lovely.

same anonymous girl who made the above comments

[(Anonymous)]

"My understanding is that the majority of the troops were artillery"

YUP :) You're correct. Pretty much all of the artillery men that I met were trained in Parachuting which I believe is part of the reason they were going to the training.

Oh and there were MOST DEFINITELY Scots among them. No hiding that accent. They're essentially impossible for little ol me to understand. I was having a "Scouse" (someone from the Liverpool area... who're practically impossible to understand as it is) translate for the scots cause there accent was so thick... especially with the alcohol.

"I'd have asked more, but the Sergeant Major was busy flirting and the rest were having too much fun for me to want to "talk shop.""

Seeing as I am a girl I think it was easier to get them to stick around and answer questions and what not hence all the info. I'm not a soldier stalker or anything ;)

Sometimes I think we need to find him a high quality wargamers group.....

[katana-girl.livejournal.com]

I mentioned this post to DH and his response was 'I would go to a Con to hang around with UK military types.'

I doubt anyone who knows him would be surprised by this.