Our first—and so far only—convention held outside the U.S. was only 230 miles away from Detroit, the home base of our hosts, the Pickering Motor Company. Although the talks and banquet were held in a hotel, many stayed on the beautiful campus of St. Michael’s College, Elliott Milstein’s alma mater. Very close by, at Trinity College, the TWSCC played a thoroughly rambunctious game on Friday that was made livelier when a passing Fellow of Trinity College expressed interest and was invited to join—only for the amateurs to learn later that he was a former Canadian International player. The weekend was replete with such moments of fun and goofiness; it also contained one of the best slate of speakers to be heard at any convention, including the actor and writer Curtis Armstrong. The culmination of the Saturday talks was the Pickering Players’ marvelous reading of “Ukridge’s Accident Syndicate.” At the dinner that night, there were costume prizes galore, plus a banjolele performance by Melissa Aaron, with her friend Pat accompanying on accordion. Sunday morning’s brunch once again featured the members of Blandings Castle, this time reading “The Castaways”—which was how we felt after we left Toronto.
See the full report of this convention in Plum Lines, Volume 24, No. 3 (Autumn 2003; p.2)
This was one of my all-time favorite conventions. The talks were fabulous, and the highlight was Curtis Armstrong’s “Nodders I Have Known: Wodehouse’s Hollywood and Mine” – possibly the best convention paper ever (in my view, anyway). We also enjoyed the Pickering Players’ reading of “Ukridge’s Accident Syndicate” – hysterical! A fun convention from start to finish.