TAFF - pg 43


   We then visited Tewkesbury Abbey and climbed to the top of
the tower for an excellent view of the town.  By now, it was time
to catch our bus and on the return trip it took a different route.
We went over side roads and trails the back way to Cheltenham.
Nice view of the countryside and I would ride in the front seat of
the top deck in order to get decent leg room.

   I stopped at Bobbie's for a drink and then got on over to Eric
and Margaret's for supper.  Eric is a pretty good trencherman, him-
self, but he said he'd met his match with me.  I figured that he'd
met Ellis Mills and no appetite could shock him.  I did have the
advantage, though: I'd been on the go all day and had worked up an
appetite, while he was the chairbourne type.

   Frank Herbert and Shirley Stevens, who are now Mr. & Mrs.,
stopped by to pick us up in their car.  Cheltenham has an exten-
sive layout for their clubroom.  It's in the basement of a two
story building and once was regular living quarters until it was
condemned for living use.  They have their library housed in a
spacious hallway, their duplicator in a room with a permanent movie
screen on one wall & cutouts in the opposite wall for projectors,
there is a kitchen which converts into a bar, then a piano in what
used to be the living room and is now their general meeting room.
The toilet is called the "Pump Room" and has a dummy leg hanging
dawn from the ceiling with shoe and pants leg attached.  A bit
startling at first entry and I suppose is the corollary to that ols
gag cartoon: 'Goodbye Cruel World'.

   I met: Peter Mabey, Bob Richardson - old time fan and correspon-
dent of Dale Smith, Audrey Eversfield-  who helps give the place a
touch of glamour, Bob Parkinson minus the other half of his beard,
Howard Nicholls, Wally Johnson, John Challoner, Mike Jones, Bill &
Bobbie Gray and of course Eric & Margaret Jones.

   I signed the wall and then photographed them at Gavagan's Bar,
etc.  The entire group is pretty much on the ball and is a lively
bunch and on the creative side.  They'd be a worthy asset to any
country or city.  Actually, with London being somewhat split apart,
Cheltenham and Liverpool are the two main centers of fan activity
in England.  The other activities are more on an individual basis,
whereas these two cities do group projects, etc.

   We had a nice time that evening and they rushed themselves to
keep my glass filled from Gavagan's Bar.  I wish Cicinnati could
afford a club room half as nice.  After the meeting they took me
to a hamburger place and we just got in under the wire at closing
time.  They lock the doors at 11:15.

   I'd like to come back to England with some capital to invest.
I'd open a series of good hamburger and milkshake establishments
and simply stay open until 1 or 2 am and make a fortune.

   Back at Eric's he telephoned the Shorrock house at Liverpool and
since Norman & John Roles were not back from their business trip as
yet, it was decided that I stay in Cheltenham another day.  I told
Eric whenever he felt it was time to go to bed, say the word as he