Sci-Fi Photos
Society for the Preservation of the Imagination
(a.k.a. SPI)
Northern Michigan University Homecoming Parade SPI Marching Unit 1989
Scott Biswabic (Scooter), Ed Dukes, Mike Fitak and Steve Compher
(More photos can be found below the Club History.)
This group was started by Kelly (Roberts) Steed in 2007 to facilitate club reunions.
Society for the Preservation of the Imagination Club History
Trust me it is far from boring! As Albert Einstein once said,
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
By Kelly (Roberts) Steed & Ed Dukes
In 1984, Mickie Smith, my roommate, took a Science Fiction Literature class and met Ken Darden
and Pete Dubovsky and so began a campus legend....
Nelda Lux, a friend of theirs, had come into possession of information on a science fiction convention in the Minneapolis area called Mini Con, an event that would alter the lives of many formerly innocent freshmen for years to come. They were trying to get a group together to help keep costs down and attend. They asked Mickie if she’d like to go along. She mentioned that I was also a sci-fi fan and they got us the pre-registration information. I was stoked! I’d always dreamed of attending a Con!
On February 14, 1985, we held a pre-Con meeting; in attendance were Nelda Lux, Peter Dubovsky, Torwin Dupris, Ken Darden, Joe Agee, Kelly Roberts (MOI), Janet Rowe and Mickie Smith. Nelda had attended Windy Con in Chicago after a glorious weekend of first-time conning she was hooked and regaled us with her tales. Mini Con was to be held Easter Weekend April 5-7 at the Radisson South Hotel in Bloomington, MN the mythical city of pleasure and fun. We traveled in Ken’s van since it was the largest vehicle and shared a room.
At the Con, we all parted company to find our own niche groups occasionally running into one another in the hotel room or the Con Suite. It was like we’d left the planet people garbed in a vast array of colorful costumes making merry! The Hucksters Room was like rubbing Aladdin's magic lamp, as treasures from countless civilizations were for sale. Movies shown 24 hours a day! A murder mystery! The Con Suite overflowing with Blog (see recipe below with the con photos), snacks and interesting (though occasionally bizarre) company. We were totally beguiled!
Peter Dubovsky, Joe Agee, Ken Darden, Torwin Dupris, Janet Rowe, Nelda Lux, and Mickie Smith are
Blown Back to Marquette! This picture taken right before we left the Con turned out to be rather prophetic!
(Read On!)
Con ended far too quickly for our liking! None of us really want to leave and return to the world of academia unfortunately the land of make believe only issues temporary visas. We packed up with heavy hearts and headed back to Marquette. While in Minnesota and Wisconsin the weather was clear, but crossing the Michigan border, we drove into snow flurries that turned into a quickly worsening blizzard. The going was slow so we amused ourselves by telling ghost stories. Not the brightest thing to do on a lonely road (and I do mean lonely with only small pockets of civilization scattered miles apart) in the Upper Peninsula in the middle of a whiteout!
Ken Darden had just told a story about a particularly nasty ghost he encountered in Florida when disaster struck! The van began to fishtail then to spin the momentum carried us up onto a snow bank built up from previous storms, which threw us up into the air and we began to tumble. Keep in mind only the driver and shotgun were wearing seatbelts, the other six of us were sitting on the van’s floor with the luggage. Amongst the luggage were a broadsword and a bullwhip for Nelda’s Dragon Riders of Perne costume. I remember somersaulting through the air as a bright white light cascaded in through the rear windows. It finally came to rest on its roof. Then it was damage assessment time. I was sitting on someone but when I went to move I felt extreme pain in my lower lumbar region. The other person slide out from under me and I was stuck laying there while everyone else got out to look for help. Other than my injury; two of the others had sprained ankles. Now the adventure was really beginning.
The next phase was “The Invasion of the Yooper Cops”! For those not in the know, Yoopers are people who dwell in the Upper Peninsula and Trolls are all who live below the Mackinaw Bridge. In the UP, not much out of the ordinary occurs so you can imagine the surprise the cops had when they discovered a shipwrecked vanload of Sci-Fi fans. The officers opened the rear doors so that they could get to me, and wouldn’t you just know it, the first thing officer no. 1 put his hands down were the broadsword and the bullwhip. It was clear from his and his partner’s expressions that they thought they’d uncovered a vanload of Sadists. They probably assumed we were otherwise engaged at the time of the wreck.
Some guy showed up claiming to be an EMT. He talked to me through the open side doors but never examined me. He told the police that they didn’t need an ambulance. One of the officers got indignant with him, “She has a back injury!” With all this bustling about and strange voices speaking to me giving me the natural inclination to turn to see whom they were coming from, I started to grow quite agitated and rather cold as I started to slip into shock. Ken Darden climbed into the van with me and told me he was going to perform a Vulcan mind meld. This made me laugh but then as he touched my head I instantly calmed down. (So FYI, Vulcan Mind Melds really do work!)
Most of us were still in various stages of costumed attire speaking in the many tongues of the varied universes fans hold dear. Which is why the ambulance attendants and the fire fighter on ride along thought yours truly had a concussion and kept repeating the same questions over and over again.
When they first asked me for my address I responded, “Which one?” Their expressions clearly stated that they thought I was a bit loose in the head. I explained that I was a college student at Northern so I had both a home and a school address. I kept telling them that I didn’t hit my head; but the grilling continued. I swear if I’d had to have been in that ambulance on that uncomfortable backboard another five minutes I would have told them, “I’m Lt. Stardust second in command of Black Squadron Battlestar Gemini. My father is Commander Tellus and if you keep asking me these inane questions I’m going to telepathically call in a strike force and blow this ambulance to Hades!” The only problem is they probably would have had me locked in the psyche ward and pumped full of Thorazine.
At the hospital, the nurse got quite a surprise when she pulled the blanket down. I was wearing boots that nearly climbed to my knees and a battle jacket with large metal buckles down its front. She took me into the x-ray room. Thank Anubis I was conscious and lucid! While she was preparing things she said, in a nonchalant manner, “We’ll have to cut your jacket off.” I remember fighting to get up while the nurse screamed at me not to move. By then my back muscles had tightened in the injured area so I could only rise about an inch; it was enough so that I could remove the battle jacket. I remember telling her, “You’re not cutting this jacket off me; it’s a collector’s item!” I’m told I launched into quite the expletive tirade that could be heard throughout the ER.
At the scene, the police told us that they rarely have a rollover without fatalities or very serious injuries and stressed to us how lucky we were. Ken dubbed his van “Hero” because it protected us.
Nelda was the Costume Shop Supervisor for the Forest A. Roberts Theatre (known amongst the students as the FART). She got the eight of us tickets for the play The King Has Gone To Tenebrae. After the show, we held a survivors party, got really ripped and decided to form a sci-fi club. It was to be a general sci-fi, fantasy and horror club we dubbed The Society Against Mundaness known lovely as SAM. As our former one of our presidents Ed Dukes put it, “After all, if they could cheat death once on the road, why not every year?”
Mundane is a fannish term for non-fannish folk, who in our jaded view, lacked imagination and lost their inner child. Ed believes the term probably has its origins in the Piers Anthony Xanath series in which those without some form of magical ability were known as mundanes. I suppose were the club to have been formed today it would have been christened Society Against Muggles (ala Harry Potter). It became a common practice when members met to greet one another by saying, “We have SAM Sign.” I wanted the motto to be, “Mundanity is insanity!” but alas it never caught on! Can you just imagine “Muggality is insanity!” or some such thing?
Later the name was changed to Society for the Preservation of the Imagination because the term AGAINST drew a great deal of negative attention from other campus organizations. But hey, we were going to draw it anyway! Come on sci-fi fans in the frozen tundra of Michigan, get real! How many people don costumes in the sticks, invade Pizza Hut, and end up with a restaurant all to themselves in a matter of about fifteen minutes? Later another organization known as SARA sprung up within our ranks. It’s full name and purpose shall forever remain a closely guarded secret.
We started out as basically a social club for costumers our main focus was Mini Con but as we built more members we started to hold more events during the school year especially under the leadership of (Emperor) Ed Dukes. “After a shocking victory, I warmed to the realization that I had an established group of willing followers. I was ready to take on the world!” (And you wondered perhaps, why we called him Emperor Ed?) Our Halloween parties were of such renown that people traveled from other states just to attend. There was also the Pre-Con Party, the Post Con Photo Party, and of course the spontaneous parties that just seemed to happen on a whim! Photos from many of them can be found below. Ken Darden, our first president, wrote the constitution, to give the club legitimacy. Ah conformity, don’t you love it? This came about when the name was changed. Before that we were guided by the drunken ruminations we penned when we held our first meeting post Survivor Party. Each campus organization was also required to have a faculty advisor there was no getting around it. We looked for someone who would sign their name on the dotted line and not ask too many questions.
Our membership was “open to anyone of any planetary or dimensional origin” however it was a very strict rule that all non-oxygen breathers had to supply their own life support systems, as the Student Activities Budget would not accommodate such extravagant expenditures. This nearly led to the first Martian Invasion of Earth! (Just a bit of Space Humor to see if you were paying attention!) I don’t know if the club is still in existence at NMU; but I do know that anyone who ever came into contact with us will never forget their close encounter of the fannish kind!
Below are photos from various club activities and of friends we made along the way!
Miss you Guys!
Kelly
First Mini-Con 1985 Radisson South Hotel Bloomington, MN
(Now a Sheraton)
1. Radisson South Hotel.
2. Radisson Tower our battleground, the management really wasn't happy about that!
3. View from the Con Suite.
1. Captain Drake, Colonial Warrior!
2. Eric the Visitor, guarding the rodent cache!
Mini-Con Photos 1986-1990
The elevators had a tendency to fall because they were always over loaded.
Some funny soul pasted these all over the elevators!
1. SPI Members: President Ed Dukes a.k.a. Emperor Ed ( held office from
1986-88 and 1989-1990) and Treasurer Dawn (Campbell) Harrison
2. Two Musketeers (Jim & Debbie) and a Maid.
3. Lt. Shalet Makiy (Shelli Seviour) , Lt. Stardust (Moi) and Lt. Keill Randor (Todd Osterhus). Shelli and Todd are now married.
4. Riley Federation Marine
1. SPI Members: Christine (Aman) and Scott Biswabic, as he brags about the six runners he brought down earlier in the day!
2. Carol as a space warrior.
3. Wendy Peterson as a space goddess.
4. Data malfunctions killing Dr. Crusher!
1. Wendy Peterson gets wicked with her Dairy Queen Spoon.
2. Tom Solheim begging us not to leave!
3. Janet and Ken Darden as Spock's Mum and Pop!
4. Tom laughs as I exclaim, "Why's everybody always pickin' on me!"
1. Lieutenants Stardust and Blackjack (Jack Langhoff) warn, "Uhh, I wouldn't do that if I were you!"
2. and 3. The many faces of Bob Poate.
4. Han Solo (Gary Hondel), "He's dead Luke!"
Gary Hondel is now a childrens' author and illustrator you can learn more Here.
1. Dragon Rider Mickie Smith (Mousseau), John Alexander, Joe Agee and Chris Choin
2. Lt. Shalet Makiy (Shelli Seviour Osterhus), MOI (apparently asleep on my feet) Chris Choin,
Colonel Garron (Gordon Smuder) and Lt. Keill Randor (Todd Osterhus)
You can learn more about Gordon through his company The Puppet Forge.
Mini Con Blog Recipe
6 ounces of lemonade
6 ounces of limeade
half a liter of ginger ale
2 ounces of grenadine
3 ounces of Vodka (optional)
When the Party's OVER!
The Great Plow Incident of 1989
Mike and The Big Plow that Couldn't
In anticipation of possible snow, Mike left the snowplow on the front of his suburban. It was the Mini Con Trip from Hell! Instead of snow and frigid temperatures we were assailed with warm temperatures and plagued by constant overheating. As we flew across a Wisconsin highway, the plow struck ground sending a massive shower of sparks over the top of the vehicle. It was way cool like standing in the center of a burst without getting burned! We survived but alas poor plow had to be left by the side of the road. Like all good fans, we had a lovely funeral ceremony complete with dancing and singing. You can see the taillights of a passing motorist off to the right no doubt hightailing it away from the escapees from the NMU Lunatic Asylum. Eventually I may have a partial film (camera ran out) of the festivities posted!
Windy Con Photos 1987 Chicago, IL
1. Colonial Warriors ready for anything. I'm wearing the helmet.
2. Windy Con Dance.
3. SPI Member Laura Lyonson (in the shimmering blue jacket) and Moi (Colonial Warrior) partying.
4. Colonel Wilma Deering (Sharon Monroe) mans her fanzine table.
Windy Con Photos 1988 Chicago, IL
Don't mess with Gordo! Gordon Smuder is a friend from Minnesota.
This photo was given to me as I didn't attend that year.
You can learn more about Gordon through his company The Puppet Forge.
Creation Con Hyiatt Regency Hotel Dearborn, MI June 1988
1. Hodgepodge of Con Revelers!
2. Ed & Bob Vailliencourt, Ed & Sandy Endres, Superman, Capt. Nova Commander of Black Avenger Squadron
(a.k.a. Colleen Elliott, my co-author on Stasis) and Dawn Campbell.
3. Galactica found Earth!
4. Gary Hondel and Han Solo's Mini Me. We think the little guy really thought Gary was Harrison Ford!
He does look a bit like a young Harrison Ford.
Gary Hondel is now a childrens' author and illustrator you can learn more Here.
Halloween 1985
We always had Halloween parties. Halloween is my favorite holiday!
1. Mickie Smith, Heather Solik, Dawn Campbell and Moi Halverson Hall Lobby, Northern Michigan University
2. Heather and Moi looking big and bad.
SPI Halloween Party 1986
1. Freddy as Doctor Who? I think he's a dead ringer for Tom Baker!
2. Lance, Dan as Death, and Moi as a Colonial Warrior on leave.
SPI Halloween Party 1987
1. Laura Lyonson and Moi as Space Mercenaries.
1. Moi and Nat Rogers as a 4th Massachusetts Light Infantryman, Revolutionary War.
I was so ticked; he looked better in that uniform than I did!
3. Visitor Ed looks really apprehensive as me and my boys enter the cantina. Behind me are
Commando Steve Compher and Assassin David Pullen. Mess with us and die!!!
SPI Halloween Party 1988
John Kalinovik and Pam discuss Kamikazes. I loved the drinks but hate the pilots!
1. Steve Compher, Moi, Dale Anderson (Capt. Dinkis) and Bob Vailliencourt at the SPI Party.
2. Bob Vailliencourt, Moi & Shelli Seviour . I went as Tarma from the Vows
and Honor series by Mercedes Lackey but with the addition of Shelli
Seviour's Playboy Bunny ears I was transformed into S & M Bunny.
3. Erik Lucas as a masked swordsman.
4. Chris Osterhus (side of his face), Mark Manuszak, Tim, John Hires, and Carol.
1. Moi being mysterious and Carol horsing around before the party.
Hey, we earned it! We prepared the food!
2. Carol in her jammies and Moi as Tarma.
3. The first president of SPI Ken Darden with Playboy Bunny Shelli Seviour and Gary Hondel in the background.
4. Tony Jackson and Doug Munn looking suave.
The Great Pizza Hut Invasion
Marquette, MI Store
The Great Pizza Hut Invasion kicked off our school year. We'd dress in costumes and hit The Hut.
Magically the restaurant always seemed to clear out after we arrived. Gee, I wonder why?
1. First Invasion for 1988. Pictured are Erik Lucas, Ed Dukes, Morey Saenz, Dawn Campbell, Karen Kessler, Steve Foster
(Karen and Steve are now married.), David Pullen, Steve Compher, Christine Aman & Scott Biswabic.
2. Dawn as a sorceress and Ed as a Visitor during an October Invasion.
Midnight Picnics
We held Midnight Picnic on the lawn in front of the Forest A Roberts Theater (a.k.a. The Fart) on either the last weekend
of September or the first weekend of October from 11:30 PM to 12:30 AM. Everyone would bring something to share.
Former Pres. Ed Dukes comment, " No matter how many times we told Student Activities we were always questioned
by Public Safety." Oh well, everyone knows they weren't REAL cops anyway! (That last is Moi's comment!)
1988
1. Down Front: Part of Steve Compher, back of Mike Fitak's head, Side of Christine Aman,
Second Row: Brent Stothers, David Pullen, Moi, Erik Lucas
2. Side of Christine Aman, unidentified, Ken and Janet Darden, and the side of Scott Biswabic.
1989
1. Mike Fitak, Moi and David Zeeb giggle at the 1989 picnic.
2. Mike and David have a manic moment.
3. Joe Poission, "No really it's just a prosthetic!"
4. Mark Manuzak, Steve Compher and Charlotte
Want the truth? I don't have any recollection of ever attending these two parties. In the '88 photo, I'm holding a Pepsi can.
Pepsi is nectar of the Gods and is not to be mixed with alcohol so I know I wasn't drinking. I have no explanation for the memory lapse!
Perhaps my doppleganger took my place! You can read more about that in my blog Doppelgangers All Around.
Air-Band Competition (NEW)
The Muppets Theme 1989
Dawn Campbell (Harrison), Ed Dukes, Stephen Compher, Mike , Scot Biswabic, Chris Amen (Biswabic) and Chris ?.
Trip to Mackinaw Island, MI
Ahh two history majors loose on a historic island, Mackinaw will never be the same!
1. Scene of Fort Mackinaw (on the hill) and part of the town taken from the dock area.
2. Kelly pilfers a regimental, hat and cartridge box in the barracks! Filthy buggers would let me join up!
3. Ed Dukes on porch of the Grand Hotel!
4. Moi gooing because Jane Seymour walked that porch in Somewhere In Time!
5. Fort Holmes, the highest point on the Island.
The Grand Hotel Experience:
Non-guests are stopped by hotel personnel and are forced to pay a fee if they want to walk on the porch. Ed and I witnessed one women being charged, I believe it was $5 at the time we were there. Ed wanted to turn back; but I said just hold your head up and high and act like you belong here. It worked! We walked right by the woman who stopped another group and she never even gazed at us. However I couldn't get him to go into the hotel for a drink! Drat it all! I wanted to see if they had a museum room like in the "Somewhere In Time" movie. FRAK!!!!
Gun Show Oakland University 1991
Moi and Mark Krist "Bear" my BIG little brother! Mark and I grew-up together in re-enacting and then
he followed me up to NMU! I'm dressed as the hospital matron Fort Howard, Wisconsin Territory 1836
and Mark is an 18th Century Native American.
Brent Stothers & Moi
Colonel Tadd and Lt. Stardust Capture Cylon, Wisconsin
This photo was shot on the way to Mini Con in Bloomington, Minnesota. Cylon is a small town that was comprised of a church, about five or six streets of houses and a park containing three signs announcing its name.
Us Being Awesome!
The series of thumbnails were taken by Bob Banks in Marquette, Michigan at the ruins of a paper mill on the campus of Northern Michigan University (NMU). Brent calls these photos, "Us being awesome!" We'd just come back from Mini-Con in Bloomington, Minnesota like the day before we took these. We weren't conned out yet! The yellow button I'm wearing is my con badge. I wished I'd remembered to remove it before these were shot! The three of us belonged to Society for the Preservation of the Imagination, our campus Sci-Fi club. I enjoy playing; you should never loose your inner child!
SPI used to play Lazer Tag at these ruins until we were turned in by one of the frats. @#$%*$@#!!!!
So why do I have a Battlestar Galactica Uniform on in most of the photos?
Battlestar was an important part of my childhood. It's the place I would go in my mind to escape my parents' continual fighting and abuse. Galactica helped me discover the sweet spot in my imagination and now I write my own stories.
Minnesota Looking Awesome!
1. Conman (a.k.a. Chris Osterhus in his mundane life)
2. Todd Osterhus and Gary Hondel battle the bad guys and save their school!
3. Gary, Conman and Todd have a meeting of the minds.
These photos were taken above the stage in Robbinsdale-Cooper High School in 1985.
4. Todd and Gary
5. Gary, Conman and Todd
6. Lt. Randor (a.k.a. Todd Osterhus), Doug Munn, Tom Solheim, and Chris Osterhus looking BIG & BAD!
You also view two videos of the guys at Osterhus.net.
Hard At Work & At Play:
1. SPI Members Erik Lucas and Moi hard at work in the Quad I Cafeteria Dishroom at NMU.
The picture was taken by Carol, who was also an employee of Quad I. Working
shifts with us was a guaranteed good time!
2. Lieutenants Silverhawk (Cathy Lundquist) and Stardust (Kelly Roberts a.k.a. Moi) say,
"It's not wise to fool with Black Squadron!"
3. Pyramid Anyone?
4. Mary Ketchum and Moi perform the drudgery of studying. Really girls just wanna have fun!
Michele Yatchek as Cousin It.
Other Activities:
Many of us were in creative majors such as film making, art and
English, so we were into writing and other artistic pursuits.
Lt. Stardust answers the alert claxon! I commissioned and posed for this. It was drawn by SPI member Laura Lyonson.
Kelly Roberts (Steed) drawn on a letter sent to me by Nat Rogers.
"Language is a virus from outer space." William S. Burroughs
To Those Who Summon The Future
By Mickie Smith
We were teased a children,
For being different from our peers.
They saw us as freaks,
Who they would never come near.
While the girls played with their dolls,
And the boys with their trucks,
We taught ourselves to read,
And were seldom seen without our books.
Their teasing made us withdraw,
Thinking we were alone.
Never knowing there might be others,
They called us dreamers,
Forced us into shells.
Never dreaming that we would harden,
Learning what they taught so well.
For we are those who summon the future:
The Dreamers,
The Screamers,
And finally the Doers,
Who work for a tomorrow of peace,
Where labels no longer have meaning,
And children don’t live in fear of being different.
Copyright Mickie Smith 1985. All rights reserved. Published here with permission.
Battlestar Galactica Fan Poetry (Original Series ONLY!)
Oath
to the Colonies
By Lt. Stardust (Kelly Roberts)
From
my cockpit I see
Visions
far in front of me,
Dreams
and hopes of my race
Dashed
to the ground in unfriendly space.
Demons
is silver did appear;
With
their Raiders they did jeer
And
fought with deadly laser fire.
All
because of a betraying liar…
Few
survivors remain,
Filled
with hatred and pain.
Cast
among the stars to roam,
Forced
to search for a new home.
I
am a guardian, who must fly,
For
the human seed must not die.
With
Earth’s help we will rise
Up
from the ashes and give them surprise.
We’ll
take back what is rightfully ours
And
reduce their empire to its final hours.
Memories
will be all that remain
To
mark their attempts at annihilation vain.
Oath was published in Galactica # 14 by Clean Slate Press, May 1988. All rights reverted back to the author upon publication. This was my first published work!
Author’s Note: The first line of the poem originally read “From my holy cradle of life I see”. I was trying to covey the cockpit in an artful way; but it fell far short so I changed the line to "From my cockpit I see" for this online publication. I like it much better!
Northern Michigan University Marquette, MI
Photo Images from the City of Marquette: http://www.geocities.com/chathammi/upimages2.html