HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H0066 8/7/00 "DORCHESTER CONFERENCE" ================================================== Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 09:30:35 -0700 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Dorchester Conference If some of you have been wondering why the list has been so quiet lately, it was probably because so many of our regular contributors were at the Hardy Conference in Dorchester last week, and away from our computers. This was my third Hardy Conference, and it was as wonderful as it always is. It was a delight to meet so many Forum members and be able to put faces to what were sometimes merely e-mail addresses. The lectures, seminars, coach trips, entertainments etc. were all excellent, and so many and varied that I couldn't attempt to give you a comprehensive summary of the whole week's activities. However, I have asked those of you to whom I spoke if you would just send an anecdote (or two) to the Forum about some event you found particularly memorable. I am sure those who were not able to attend would appreciate this. Of all the events from which to choose, I found one of the happiest to be the presentation of a festschrift to Bob Scheick honoring his years of dedication to Hardy Studies. All the essays contained in the book were written by TTHA members. To add to the surprise for Bob, his son, Charles, who had travelled from the US for the occasion, appeared unexpectedly from behind a closed door just in time for the presentation. A happy scene for all concerned when he appeared. Congratulations again Bob on a well-deserved honor Do please write if you were at the Conference. I am sure we can put together a nice little chapter of memories to look back on in the future. Betty Cortus ========== From: JWWhipple@aol.com Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2000 07:10:52 EDT Subject: Re: Dorchester Conference Dear Betty and All, Indeed this was a memorable Conference and also the third for me. As before there were far too many memorable moments to describe justly, but one item that surely deserves some mention is the smooth, efficient handling of logistics by the organisers. It seems as the Conference becomes larger, so do the variety of the offerings and the fine efforts by the entire "team". I must add one small note: it was gratifying to see many of the most industrious contributors recognised in so many ways, one of the most appropriate being Fisherman Morgan's well-deserved Orvis rod! Congratulations and hearty appreciation to all for the best Conference yet! Julian W. Whipple ========== Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 07:31:25 -0700 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Dorchester Conference Thanks for that presentation of "Moments of Vision" to the DCM was a indeed a specialmoment, and his fishing rod was well deserved. Betty Cortus ========== Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 10:59:05 -0700 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: Dorchester Conference I'm sorry, but my earlier message to the list somehow got garbled. It should have read: Thanks for that fine memory Julian. The presentation of "Moments of Vision" to the DCM was indeed a special moment, and Bill's fishing rod was well deserved. Betty Cortus =========== Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 15:01:27 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Dorchester Conference Greetings all! As Betty says below: "wonderful" it was! but difficult it now is to choose the most happy of the many happy events. Certainly Bill's presentation to the Dorset County Museum of *Moments of Vision* has to be one of TTHA's proudest moments -- "Moments" which, most gratifyingly for all concerned, received much enthusiastic attention from the local and national press, radio and TV. And yes, the happy event of a presentation of a Festchrift to Bob Schweik was indeed, as Betty says, a high spot of the week -- made all the more exciting by the last-minute surprise arrival of his son, Charlie. Actually, Charlie's arrival by train at Dorchester some minutes before the Festschrift presentation was about to happen carries its own typically Hardyan aspect: for, as the son disembarks & skirts the town trying hard to remain invisible up to the very last moment, so the father, whom I had kept carefully under my wing up to this point, suddenly decides to go to the downtown bank! Almost colliding with his dad on the street Charlie dives into a nearby churchyard where he waits awhile and then summons a passing couple and begs them to find someone to help him -- his mom or myself. Thus it was that, in the final moments of setting the stage in the Corn Exchange I was hailed by a breathless couple with a wild story about a Schweik in hiding, and thus it was that I then raced off to Grey School Lane to rescue the fugitive skulking among the gravestones; and thus it was that, in true Hardyan style, he and I furtively crept through the back lanes of Dorchester peering out at every street corner to avoid being spotted by the father who Must-Not-See! When, later, the presentation moment arrived and Charlie proudly stepped out of the shadowy wings of the Corn Exhange to add his own congratulations to the loud applause, the look of stunned amazement on his father's face was worth every nervous moment of skulking like miscreants in the Mixen Lanes of Dorchester earlier that afternoon! On a more personal note I have to select, as the most unexpected of my own happy moments, the eve of the Last Dance, when --to everyone's amazement-- Jim Gibson laid aside his walking cane and, approaching me with beaming smile & wide open arms, led me on to the dance floor! I should explain that way back in the 1970s Jim and I met for the first time (at what was my first Hardy conference) when, by happenstance, we danced a reel together at the Athelhampton Hall barndance. We both treasured this meeting and have become firm friends ever since. However, over the ensuing years Jim's knees "went" and, much to our mutual regret, he could dance no more. Until, that is, the eve of July 29th, 2000, when my "dancing partner" of yore abandoned his cane and led me on to the floor, to cavort -- for the very last time -- to the merrymaking fiddler of the reels! Yea! An unforgettable moment, for me . . Cheers, Rosemarie ==========