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my first worldcon
Feb. 3rd, 2006 07:39 amThe LAconIV people were talking about the price of worldcon memberships, and asked when people attended their first worldcons and how much it cost.
My first worldcon - and my first con - was Baycon in 1968. My brother (18) and I (16) went with our older sister (27) who had attended three or four other worldcons and shared the results with us (discussions of Star Trek before it was aired on national TV, ACE copies of LotR before Ballantine picked it up). I paid $6 for a membership and sent it in the
month before the con. $6 in 1968 would buy me five movie tickets (current cost $40). We drove to Oakland from Sacramento (gas at 30 cents a gallon) and stayed in a small hotel (the Durant?) near the con for, IIRC, $14 per night for a room with two double beds. I was entranced, delighted, and somewhat bewildered by my first taste of fandom, but went on to join the Mythopoeic Society and the SCA, and attend all Westercons, Mythcons, and all west coast worldcons over the
next four years while I finished college.
The prices for that first con seem very low - even when you figure in almost 40 years of inflation. According to the Inflation Calculator <http://www.westegg.com/inflation/> $175 (2005) have been $31.63 in 1968. If a membership had cost $30 I would not have been able to even consider going to that first worldcon. I would have paid $10, I -might- have paid $15, but $30 would have been completely out of my range.
My first worldcon - and my first con - was Baycon in 1968. My brother (18) and I (16) went with our older sister (27) who had attended three or four other worldcons and shared the results with us (discussions of Star Trek before it was aired on national TV, ACE copies of LotR before Ballantine picked it up). I paid $6 for a membership and sent it in the
month before the con. $6 in 1968 would buy me five movie tickets (current cost $40). We drove to Oakland from Sacramento (gas at 30 cents a gallon) and stayed in a small hotel (the Durant?) near the con for, IIRC, $14 per night for a room with two double beds. I was entranced, delighted, and somewhat bewildered by my first taste of fandom, but went on to join the Mythopoeic Society and the SCA, and attend all Westercons, Mythcons, and all west coast worldcons over the
next four years while I finished college.
The prices for that first con seem very low - even when you figure in almost 40 years of inflation. According to the Inflation Calculator <http://www.westegg.com/inflation/> $175 (2005) have been $31.63 in 1968. If a membership had cost $30 I would not have been able to even consider going to that first worldcon. I would have paid $10, I -might- have paid $15, but $30 would have been completely out of my range.
