In the program book for Noreascon 3, where NESFA honored The
Stranger Club, by bringing the 6 of us still living back as Fan
GOHs, I wrote a history of the SC, ending withe tribute that the
club took out the "lonely" and left the "proud."
I just found out from Lenny that Lee has passed, & am moved to
relate a strange coincidence:
Way long ago, Lee Tuckerized me in a western story called "Trouble
Valley." I knew nothing of this,Tuckerizing having started after i
gafiated. Speer informed me of this many years later, & sent me
a copy of the book, altho he denies this now.
Anyway, Lee made me the lead character but named me "Gus." so i
wasnt sure that it was a true Tuckerization, since there never was
a Gus in our family, & i thot she mytv got it from the fone
book or some such, Widner being a more common name in the South.
She said no, it was me.
Now leap ahead another dozen years or so & my grandotrs r
popping our great gsons at a frytning rate. Magenta, my Forest
Ranger gdotr, married a Norwegian from Alabama, who escaped &
wound up on Mt Baker where they now live. They named their first
baby "Gustav" after one of his relatives.
So this may be the first case since Pinocchio of a fictional
character becoming a real boy! Magenta & her husband, Mark, of
course, knew nothing of all this background. And teknikly, he isnt
"Gus Widner" but "Gus Widner-Rikard."
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