Don D'Ammassa has been in APA45 as long as I can remember (and probably almost as long as he can remember too) We met he and Shiela for the first time at DISCON one morning when he introduced himself over the AUSSIECON membership selling table. Later on in the day we went off to an impromptu fanzine discussion panel where there were so many faneds in the audience that the panel was made up of just about all those who did not produce a fanzine. Somewhere during the day Valma and I decided that in the middle of our stay in New York we'd take the train up to Providence (it wasn't far when Don explained to us where Rhode Island is and where New York is) for a day or so. We thought that the train ride might make a pleasing change from whizzing about in aeroplanes. However we had not counted for Amtrack which seems to be even worse than the Victorian Railways, at least the VR seem to keep their windows reasonably clean so that the countryside view isn't obscured by all sortsof brown smears and smudges. The ride was, all the same, enjoyable and the countryside exceedingly beautiful in places. Most of it was rural but we were never totally away from urbanisation. Don met us at the station and drove us through the streets to his home where Shiela was slaving over a meal for us. Don had wondered what meal we might not have in Australia and hnd looked it up in an encyclopedia The conclusion he reached was that turkey and corn on the cob would be something unusual and he was right. Fowl, as a rule, doesn't turn me on but the corn was out of this world and it instantly achieved a place in our top ten foods. Don & Shiela share their house with David their son and the cat. From the outside it appears an almost ordinary house (and by Rhode Island standards it probably is) but hidden underneath is a basement,a novelty to us, which is crammed full ofbooks. suffers from the collecting bug, poor fellow, and reckons that he has just about every book of science fiction everprinted in the English language. Even more astounding he reckons that he has read just about all of them - including Cap Kennedy. In case you didn't know Rhode Island is in the middle of New England and is some of the oldest land with a history of European civilisation (or uncivilisation if you prefer). In California we hadn't seen anything older than what we had become used to in Australia and the same went almost for New Mexico and Washington. New York might have its moments but I don't remember them if we saw them. By my standards though Rhode Island is ancient and all about there was a feeling that man had been here for a long enough time to impose himself on the land properly, and yet so long that the earlier traces had become a part of the land. On the morning of the day we had to go back to New York Shiela and David took us shopping, for jiffy bags of all things. After we had left the post office Shiela told us that everybody had noticed us and were looking at us because of our funny accents. My taking a picture of the board full of wanted notices hadn't helped much but I'd been trying to get David, who is just becoming verbal, to say "Gooday" in a decent 'strine accent by setting a good example. The treatment almost worked too he said it with a really decent one. and I suppose that another week or two of intensive treatment would have made it permanent. Though I doubt if Shiela or Don would have approved. And after they had looked after us so well I wouldn't have wanted to annoy them.