NameThatCon XIV -- Formaldecon, The Preservation of Fandom
NameThatCon 14, Formaldecon, the Preservation of Fandom, was held over the weekend of March 9-11, 2001 at the Ramada Six Flags in Eureka, MO (a western suburb of St. Louis). This is typically a small and rather intimate convention, and it has a good con suite, especially after they quit serving beer and used the savings to buy good food.
One of the more unusual aspects of this convention is its dealers' room. There is a row of rooms alongside the FunDome (where the pool and arcade are located). The dealers are given these rooms and set up in front of them, but can also set up merchandise inside.
We arrived early Friday morning and got checked into our room. Then we carried our stuff in and set everything up. We were ready in plenty of time to open, and even made one sale before the dealers' area officially opened. However, once we actually did get opened, sales were painfully slow. We spent most of our time sitting and waiting for customers. I even got some work done on my novel. We also got our dinners eaten (we had brought microwavable dinners with us and used the microwave by the hotel's automatic snack bar).
After the dealers' area closed for the night, we went to the hot tub. However, the water wasn't particularly hot, just sort of bathwater temperature. After we sat for a while in it, we went to the sauna. Now that was hot -- so hot that we could only stay a few minutes.
Afterward we visited the one and only party that evening. Then we made a quick visit to the con suite before turning in for the night.
Saturday morning, we got up early and got our dealer tables set up. Then we settled in to do a lot of waiting and not much selling.
After the dealers' room closed, we went to the hot tub. We'd been told that it had been hotter later Friday evening, but when we got there, it was tepid again. The sauna was good and hot.
In the evening we visited the one and only party of the day, then went down to our room to open thcngs up for the midnight madness sale. That was a disappointment for us, since we got a lot of people looking, but nobod actually buying.
Sunday morning we got up early and got our personal stuff out of the room. Then we packed the rest of our merchandise and loaded it into the van. I retrieved my unsold art from the art show (unfortunately, none of my pieces sold) and we made one final trip to the con suite to get some snacks and say our good-byes before we hit the road for the long trip back to mundania.
Copyright 2012 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated October 21, 2012.