Newspaper Page Text
Inside a “Trek-O-Rama”
By Lillian Wan
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
This past weekend, I attended
the Trek-O-Rama convention held
in Columbia, SC on Saturday,
January 13. Trek-O-Ramas are
weekend Star Trek conventions
(or cons for short) put on by the
Star Knight Productions, Inc.
based in NC. These Star Trek
cons are putonall over the United
States in hotels and other conven
tion centers. There was a dealer’s
room with items sold that cannot
be found in regular stores. Photo
graphs, postcards, mugs, plates,
t-shirts, pens, trading cards, books,
comic books, jewelry, etc. related
to Star Trek, Star Wars and a
variety of other popular TV shows
and movies were among the many
products sold. Collectibles that
you would usually have to mail
order. Autographed photos of stars
you may never get to meet due to
distance and expense. There were
also blooper reels and videos
played, anauction, a costume con
test and door-prize drawings
among other activities. The main
attractionis a Star Trek star from
one of the series or movies. Satur
day’s feature was a special guest
from Star Trek: Voyager, Ethan
Phillips, who plays Neelix on the
series that showslocallyon WFXG
Fox 54 on Sunday nights at 10:00
p.m. Mr. Phillips was as funny as
his character Neelix on the show.
His hour-and-a-half talk was a
series of humorous and serious
answers to the various questions
that he fielded.
For example:
Q: How many children do you
have?
A: Nine.
Q: Nine?
A: No real children, nine fake
ones.
Afterwards, Mr. Phillips signed
Jazzmatazz to he featured Tuesday
Tuesday’s Music Live will feature Jazzmatazz
in concerts on Tuesday, January 23. Young
people’s concerts will take place 10:00 and
11:00 a.m. and the regular concert will be at
12:00 noon. Lunch available for purchase will
Don’t touch
that shooze
button!
Rebecea
~ln the
morning.
R
W88A....
Augusta's best mix of music
is # ,;s‘ :
Ethan Phillips, shown here as
Neelix from Star Trek: Voyag
er, was the guest at Trek-O-
Rama last Saturday.
one or two autographs each for an
estimated crowd of 450 people.
Try to imagine how it must have
felt like to talk for about one and a
half hours and then to sign one’s
name about 900 times. It makes
my arthritic fingers tired just to
think of it.
Behind the scenes of a con
Having worked behind the
scenes of many conventions, I
know that there was a lot of hard
work involved with putting on
the convention: the promoter
and any other assistant had to
make arrangements to reserve
the rooms used for the conven
tion, the chairs needed for the
crowds, the various tables used
for display of the vendors’ wares,
microphone set-up, projection
equipment set-up, and various
signs that had to be posted (dis
abled seating, price list, conven
tion program, etc.) The dealers
be prepared by Poppy Seed. Concerts and
lunch will be held at St. Paul’s Church, 605
Reynolds St.
For more information or for reservations,
call (706) 722-3463.
also spent a lot of time in prepa
ration for the fans. They had to
drive theirtruck-load or van-load
of goods for several hours to a
convention site, then spend sev
eral hours unloading boxes of
their goods from their vehicles to
the vendors’ room, and arrang
ing their wares on various tables
and display racks.
After the convention on a Sat
urday, if the con moves off into
another town, the dealers will
then have to spend hours pack
ing up their wares, putting the
boxes in their vehicles and driv
ing for hours to the next conven
tion site. After arrival in a new
town, the vendors will then need
to unpack the boxes from their
vehicles, unpack the goods from
their boxes, and rearrange the
wares ontables and display racks
again.
So I have a healthy apprecia
tion for the grueling, back-break
ing, hours-long hard work that
those dealers go through in set
ting up their various displays for
the crowds to enjoy, with much
of the work taking place late at
night or early in the morning in
order for the displays to be ready
for perusing by the crowds dur
ing the six or seven hours of a
convention. If you noticed the
red lines in some eyes or tired
expressions behind some of those
smiles, now you know why.
The next time (or first time)
you get to attend a Trek-O-Rama
Star Trek convention, please look
beyond the fun stuff(videos, auc
tions, Star Trek star, autographs,
etc.) to think of all the efforts put
forth by the promoter and the
dealerstotravel all the way from
N.C. and beyond to put on a show
for us fans. Then take a moment
to tell someone “Thanks.” Be
lieve me, your gratitude will be
appreciated.
You'll get it back, :
when we say you'll get it back...
Rhodes-Murphy
i Tax Preparers
WRIGHTSBORO RD.
North Leg Plaza
Augusta, GA
(706) 733-8627
PINE LOG
1019 Pine Log Rd.
Aiken, SC
(803) 649-2397
WADLEY
103 N. Main St.
Wadley, GA
- (912) 252-5243
MARTINEZ
3938 Washington Rd.
Martinez, GA
(706) 868-1298
KALMIA PLAZA
1536 Richland Ave. W
Aiken, SC
(803) 648-0311
GORDON HWY.
1557 Gordon Hwy.
Augusta, GA
(706) 738-9090
.). s |
| " Rain /{//\/ \/\\ \\
Urshine i\ )
| M We Lend More \ \/U\///
,m) dhonMoney .%T }: ¥
i‘r;:,?:i’:g\ \\ X We Lend A Hand * ;/ q"7 ‘;
Nz)\\| YOUKEEPCAR {3l
}zij B \ No Credit Check ‘ \"Qi, 0
e e R
I-;flXPRESSCASIE—:: I
e Title Pawn
' \ 13th Street at Jones - 722-1664 ,”f, Yo’ s o
= \(/ 3108 Peach Orchard Road - 7968599 /32’8 [
BAG N\~ 1 : 3833-A Washington Road - 855-5965 02/
\ : Wew Lacation: —-:.:%@7
'] C{ , N 2401 !Vg?hl:lngton Rty)ad % 't “~ =
Il dAA_sqAaNAA e aihoun Expresswa _— 5
l Membfr / e ‘ 667-0950 </ all v
FOCUS your club luncheons or dinners in a fine restaurant.
Visit BL’s Restaurant at 1117 Laney-Walker Blvd. or call
(706) 828-7799 to arrange your meetings and celebrations.
9
Don’t Pay Too Much
For Car Insurance!
Premiums vary greatly between companies, so
before you buy or renew your auto insurance, be
sure to get prices from at least two other sources.
Phone Quotes Are FREE - Call Us Soon!
“FOR REALLY & TRULY AFFORDABLE INSURANCE”
PHONE
QUOTES
Weekdays
until
9 p.m.
790-4381
#1
3084 Deans Bridge Rd.
Across from
Wendy's
736-1006
#4
2022 Gordon Hwy.
Across from
Bob Richards Chevrolet
AUGUSTA FOCUS
PEACH ORCHARD
117 Windsor Spring Rd.
Augusta, GA
(706) 793-6252
TOBACCO ROAD
2605 Tobacco Rd.
Hephzibah, GA
(706) 798-7048
FIFTEENTH ST.
15th St. Kroger Shopping Ctr.
Augusta, GA
(706) 724-6802
WAYNESBORO
205 Counail St.
Waynesboro, GA
(706) 554-9010
LINCOLNTON
State Farm Bldg.
Lincointon, GA
(706) 359-7661
THOMSON
Carriage Lane Shopping Ctr
Thomson, GA
(706) 595-6053
CALL
TODAY!
722-9444
#2
453 Broad St.
Old Town Plaza
Across from Days Inn
737-6060
#5
3217 Wrightsboro Rd.
Across from Pizza Hut
or you don't pay the
elecnfony ic filir}zyga%es!
BELVEDERE
327 kdgefield Rd.
Belvedere, SC
(803) 279-3873
NEW ELLENTON
. 237 Main St.
New Ellenton, SC
(803) 652-3342
GROVETOWN
308 W. Robinson Ave.
Grovetown, GA
(706) 863-2115
#3
2603 Tobacco Rd.
Windsor Spring Rd.
Across from Video Whse.
863-0060
#6
3836 Washington Rd.
In front of
K-Mart Pharmacy
January 18, 1996
BARNWELL
Main St.
Bamwell, SC
(803) 259-5546
BEECH ISLAND
3938 Atomic Rd.
Beech Island, SC
(803) 827-0801
SOUTHGATE RAL CTR.
1557 Gordon Hwy.
Augusta, GA
(706) 667-0436
OPEN
SATURDAYS
Representing
over 40
Companies
560-0350
17
