NANCY DREW 2012 CONVENTION
GOLD CANYON, AZ
March 19-25, Part V
Saturday, March 24:
Our last day of presentations began with my brief chat about using our websites and members only section - a tutorial which was hopefully helpful to those who haven't been too sure of getting around the website or finding things. It is a pretty user friendly website. I'll likely do more of these tutorials in Boston. Then I began my easy going presentation on Nancy Drew Sleuthing Scenes in which I put together a Power Point of various internal illustrations from the classic Nancy Drew series ranging from Russell H. Tandy to unknown illustrators. These scenes were some of my favorites showing Nancy Drew in sleuthing mode with snooping, eavesdropping, using her magnifying glass or flashlight, checking out footprints, catching villains or evading them, dumb criminals and much more!
AZ Sleuths presented me with a very lovely gift--an Eagle Kachina Doll, which was very much appreciated. I thank them very much for their kindness!
Our next speaker was Pamela Hancock who discussed Leslie McFarlane, original ghostwriter of the Hardy Boys Series and Haileybury where he hailed from in I Grew Up in Bayport. Her presentation, the photographs and maps and the tidbits about Haileybury were very fascinating!
After lunch, James D. Keeline enlightened us with a Tom Swift presentation: "What do I care for the principles of science?": Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone. It was very enjoyable as were the inventions and drawings!
Our last speaker was Lorraine Rogers whose presentation, The Gail Gardner Series by Margaret Sutton, was very entertaining and focused on this series, Margaret and a little bit about Lorraine's nursing career. See Lorraine above and in her uniform.
This year's Sleuth Con, a sub-convention of our regular Nancy Drew convention, was very well-rounded and fun! I think members who collect not only Nancy Drew, but other series, were fascinated by the various topics and many were inspired to try other series. Luckily between all the book shops and the book tables at the convention, there were many opportunities to purchase all kinds of series.
After we wrapped up the talks and the raffle and gave out the remaining prizes included the neat Hidden Staircase Nancy Drew stand up, some members on the decorating committee stayed behind to turn the room into our Kachina Doll barn dance complete with "barn siding," sombreros, Mexican paper flowers, and even a cowboy cutout and the phantom horse from Shadow Ranch. We hung the bright red/black silhouette panel of Nancy Drew above the gift exchange tables and set up 3 tables - one for handcrafted Nancy Drew items, one for store-bought Nancy Drew items, and an all-series table for non-Nancy Drew series book items. The Kachina Doll painting was brought down from the lobby of the hotel where it marked a bucket of treasure voucher coupons that if found, would be turned in at the party for a piece of the Shadow Ranch/Kachina Doll treasure.
The hotel set up the bar and dinner buffet--we would soon be dining on western fare--steak, chicken, beans, potatoes, salad, fruit, and assorted deserts and cobbler.
With our western theme, everyone began to arrive in costumes ranging from Victorian to the wild west to Nancy Drew characters like Nancy Drew from the 2nd art Bill Gillies Shadow Ranch and Mrs. Thurmond from revised text Shadow Ranch.
Even Frances Humber and Dirk Valentine made an appearance! So did Ms. Vicki Barr in her cute flight attendant outfit! There were quite a few Kachina Doll Nancy Drews running around too with their blue dresses and white shawls. And then there were people like me who threw on the cowboy boots and poured on the turquoise jewelry!
After dinner was served, our mysterious suspects finished out some of our clues skits and then everyone had a chance to turn in their answer to whodunit to win prizes. We put on one final reveal skit and it turned out that Penny Parker was the one who did it and not only did Nancy Drew turn out to not be a ghost after all, but it was her nemesis Gay Moreau from Lilac Inn who was the real victim of Penny's dastardly deeds. As Vicki Barr and Cherry Ames dragged off Penny Parker to jail, she screamed, "May you all age and grow wrinkles!" Thankfully Tom Swift piped up about his anti-aging invention and Judy Bolton, who was just turning 35, told everyone it wasn't so bad. ;-)
We began drawing for prizes and the first smarty pants answer received a goofy prize--which was a fake mustache to Peter who then paired up with A.B. to become Jesse & James. We also handed out bags of the treasure--fool's gold and a neat pewter Kachina Doll charm.
I was presented with a very neat gift from James and Kim Keeline of a decoupaged box featuring Nancy Drew imagery and a neat wine charm. Sleuth Kelly presented me with the neatest old-school 1934 flashlight with a Sleuth Con label. It was very sweet of everyone :)
After prizes ranging from totebags, mugs, buttons, jewelry, coin purses and clutch bags, puzzles, and subscriptions to The Sleuth were given out to those who guessed Penny Parker, we took a group photo and held the gift exchange. Lots of really neat gifts were given out ranging from Nancy Drew books to clocks to quilts, to jewelry, to a vintage Nancy Drew Rudy Nappi printer's proof, to decoupaged items. Quite a few were related to Shadow Ranch, one of our theme books. Here's a sampling of some of the gifts:
After the gift exchange, people began to filter off to their casitas to pack for the trip home. Several of the chums and I went back to their casita and opened a bottle of wine and toasted to a very successful convention! Everyone seemed to have the best time and the events flowed so well, and most important of all, everyone wants to attend another and so hopefully we'll see everyone next year!
Sunday, March 25:
Everyone visited one last time on the hotel's patio for breakfast the next morning before saying our goodbyes until next year. It's always kind of bittersweet at the end, sort of like at the end of each Nancy Drew mystery when she was wistful about the close of a mystery and hopeful for another to come along. Of course, we'll be on the case again next year in Boston for our 2013 Nancy Drew convention--sometime in May or June. We will iron out those details in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!
Jenn:)
