Who's Going to Ithaca?, Show of hands

These are song selections Matt wanted me to post, hopefully this can be enlarged somehow.

Who are the two people on the ends? Between them I recognize Jeff, Patton, Carol, and Matt from left to right.

That's my son in the blurry foreground and my head right next to him. Patton is the little head behind us. Half of my father is shown ahead of us.

Some of you may recall meeting my son on the bus from Ithaca to Binghamton. He's the one who ran up to some people getting on the bus and said "It's a cookbook!". He then stood at the top of the bus stairs and would tell the women coming on board "Room for one more, honey." When we were about 10 minutes away from our destination, he walked the isle of the bus and said "Next stop, Willoughby."

Yes, I am very proud of him!

I didn't realize I got you in the photo, Gart! That's the same day we went to Rod's old high school and you were telling me about the neat places to go see in Toronto. Thanks for the advice but I was very anxious to get back to the heat of Florida (it was about 92 degrees today).
Here are some more pictures.

Dan Hollis -- the gal in the photo with Carol Serling wearing a black jacket holding up Carol's new book is me, Maria from FL. The person on the other end wearing a blue shirt is Joel from NY. He's been to several of the conventions and I met him at the '06 convention in New Jersey.
I wish I could've met you, Matt says you are quite the king of trivial knowledge :)
I also wish LeenZone would've been there, I met her at the '06 convention and we were wearing the same Walt Disney World Twilight Zone Tower of Terror t-shirt!!

I take all the responsibility for the sudden cold snap we had this past week in Toronto, Bar-ba-rah. I hope you had a great time, nevertheless.

I just booked a trip to Disney World in Dec. for my family... it will be nice to have the warm weather at that time.

It was nice to meet you and the others at Ithaca.

Oh ya, that's an excellent photo of the Serling bust from the lobby of the building where his daughter spoke.

That bust of Rod was directly across from where I took a picture of you and your family posing with the antique television set.
I loved Toronto, just not the cold wind at Toronto Island near the lighthouse. You should have pretty decent weather when you get here in December!

Here are some more pics:

Tony talking about the impact of war on Serling's life.



Serling's daughter reading an excerpt from her upcoming book.


student artwork depicting a Kanamit, a cracked mirror image, eyeballs, and EOTB

Still with you Maria, still with you. Thanks for thinking of me! It's one of those had I known...

bar-bah-rah!



Glad you've joined us, and thanks for posting those pics. Hope you enjoy the Cafe to its fullest!

It was great seeing and spending time with so many old, new, and semi-new faces (I knew Gart from the board, but this was the first time I met him in person). I enjoyed all the presentations I attended, and will write more about them when I get a chance. The most disappointing thing was that there were so many interesting presentations I couldn't attend.

George Clayton Johnson was magnificent as always, during his speech and whenever else he was spending time with people. And the bus trip to Binghamton (which included GCJ, who commented on "Nothing in the Dark" and "Execution" before those episodes were played on DVD) was an experience to remember. Binghamton itself was great, too. Being a huge "Walking Distance" fan (another episode we saw on the bus), I'll remember that merry-go-round ride for as long as I live.

The dinner was great, and Ari Kissiloff's presentation about mass media TZ references was the perfect accompaniment and had all of us laughing. I enjoyed the marathon more than I expected, too. As many times as one sees the episodes on DVD, it's still great to see them on a large screen as part of a fairly large audience. And it was especially satisfying to hear GCJ talk about my favorite television episode of all time, "Kick the Can." (I was sitting in the extreme left of our row, next to Patton. When they played Patton's favorite TZ episode, "The Night of the Meek," next, we started speculating humorously that they must be playing the favorites of our whole row one by one. Patton and I left early, so I didn't get a chance to find out whether Maria's favorite was "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.")

So that's the overview, which is probably long enough for one post. I'll post more specifics as I get the chance.

Your son has a great TZ sense of humor, Gart. His "It's a cookbook!" line cracked me up. I also chuckled when Gordon Webb got a call on his cell phone as he was emceeing the marathon, and your son called it a "Long Distance Call."

Sounds like everyone had a great time! Wish I could have gone, but that's life.

If I ever do go to Binghamton, I do have to include one non-Zone-related spot to visit--LaFrance Pet Cemetery, where one of my favorite racehorses, Exterminator, is buried. (in case you're wondering, his owner lived in Binghamton.)

Gart, this is the photo I was telling you about, of your son being interviewed, standing near the Binghamton carousel:



Were you notified of when they would broadcast the interview? Bevis is right, good sense of TZ humor. I like that it is being passed down to the next generation ;)

WOW, thanks all you guys for the pix from the celebration! I'm a first-timer here, but a lifelong Serling devotee. Where have you guys been all my life? I discovered the anniversary(yes, I'm ashamed it wasn't on my calendar) too late or would have hitched a ride from Tennessee! The stories from your trip are neato. George Clayton Johnson is as he is in my mind! What does he do, where does he live? Did he write much after TZ? Visiting Binghamton, et.al. is presently on my bucket list . Are there some decent and affordable accomodations there? Peace,

You should've heard me ask the guys: How is the lady from Florida? Is she still posting?
I had lost my planner where I stuffed all of the contact info I gathered at our '06 Convention. I felt like Bemis, "That's not fair. That's not fair at all!"
Ithaca was a blast, you could tell that everyone that was there actually wanted to be there. I still get horrible flashbacks from time to time of the dinner with Mickey Rooney in New Jersey. He did not warm up to the fans and just wanted to leave. He kept waiting for George Clayton Johnson to finish his speech, but you know how funny GCJ is about having free reign to speak. He did the same thing in Ithaca. Just chit chatting like we were all friends of his. Such an easy-going guy.

ipomea, i'm glad you asked about George Clayton Johnson. He is still very busy; he is working on projects to try to modernize some of his scripts using some of today's actors. He told us about a website but I have not been on it yet. Try googling toogoodfortv, just like that, with no spaces. See if some of the info on him you wanted comes up!

Matt reminded me that the Ithaca Conference picture gallery is up and running on the Rod Serling Conference website. There are several photos, and in them, several Cafe members. The website is www.ithaca.edu/rhp/serling/gallery/3139 and that should take you right to the 2009 pics if anyone is interested.

Hope this link to the photos works:

http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/serling/gallery/3139