Ufology Research

Out of the blue, I received a package in the mail. Inside were two CDs and a letter from someone who actually tunes in to a radio show on ghosts and UFOs ("Mysterious Manitoba" on CJUM-FM: www.umfm.com) I do every week with my co-host Chris Reid.

The CDs contained clips of a radio show I helped host in the late 1970s, called Step Beyond. It was produced by the Winnipeg Science Fiction Society. The letter writer also sent a link to a website giving the history of Canadian SF fandom: http://fanac.org/Fan_Histories/Canada/Canada-70s.html

The relevant section on Winnipeg SF is as follows:

Decadent Winnipeg Fandom

Between 1975 and 1977, there was a resurgence in Winnipeg fandom. Michael Hall writes in Schmag #2 (Dec. 1978) that "people would come over at various times, and discuss SF, fandom, and whatever else came along. (Randy Reichardt) decided to try and get a local fan group going, and the WSFS was as good a start as any ..."

What was later called "Decadent Winnipeg Fandom" was basically a loose association of fans who socialized, went to cons, and put out fanzines, including Reichardt's Winding Numbers. Several members of DWF were friends of Randy's from the University of Manitoba; others were met at a talk by Judith Merril in Winnipeg (in 1975 or 1976), or at Chester Cuthbert's home, such as Stu Gilson, and Garth Danielson. I associate Danielson most strongly with his fanzine Schmag, and some running gag or other called "lard fandom". Chris Rutkowski read of the Winnipeg SF Society in 1973 or 1974, in a copy of Other Worlds picked up at the Red River Bookstore; John Robert Colombo says in Years of Light that "Winnipeg has always been a good city for fandom, for it has had more than its share of used-book dealers ... associations, and collectors." Mike Hall was recruited in June '77, he wrote in Schmag, when Randy Reichardt spotted his change of address in Karass (which was then, I gather, North America's main news fanzine, later succeeded by File 770).

So about this time, DWF asked Cuthbert's permission to use the name WSFS, which he gave. Under this name they produced a radio show, "Step Beyond", in the late 1970s, sponsored by Peter Shott (co-owner of the Red River Bookstore), and held Uncon in 1978.

I should note that Uncon was the first science fiction convention in Winnipeg. I helped organize it, and even baked flying-saucer-shaped cookies for it.

I hadn't been welcomed into DWF at first, mostly because my specialty was UFOs, and I appeared to think that UFOs were "real," as opposed to merely science fiction. But the other members relented after realizing that if UFOs were fictional, then my interest qualified as science fiction.

To this day, I study the connection between SF and UFOs. My latest book includes sections about SF, as a matter of fact.

And just yesterday, my wife and I visited Chester Cuthbert, who still has an interest in SF and literature. His birthday is tomorrow; he turns 96.