WALLY WEBER'S TAFF TRIP

3: Back at Ella's

"Eventually Madeleine and I ran away to London together, but Walt followed us after seeing his daughter safe in the hospital, and Thursday night, March 26 found Walt, Madeleine, Ethel Lindsay, Ella and myself trying to get some sleep in preparation for the Peterborough convention which was to begin the next day."

Madeleine Willis, Ella Parker, Fred Parker, Bill Temple

Fred Parker, Bill Temple, Walt Willis

ELLA PARKER:

"I have, at last, achieved an ambition I have long cherished. Walt Willis' name is in my Visitor's book! Sounds like lion hunting, doesn't it? It wasn't really. I first met Walt at the Harrogate Eastercon and what I saw I liked.... this comes as a surprise to you? We had exchanged a few letters, but for some reason I was never at ease writing to him as I was writing to others I'd never met. I think I allowed his reputation in fandom to intimidate me. Daft! I resolved, by hook or by crook, I was going to get him to the Pen and really get to know him. How to arrange it was the bother; I just couldn't see him hopping the Irish Channel to one of my Friday night meetings. It would have to be something else. But what? Then fate took a hand."

Walt Willis, Ted Forsyth, Joe Patrizio

Ted Forsyth, Joe Patrizio, Arthur Thomson

"Walt and Madeleine were coming over for the Eastercon this year a day early and they had to have somewhere to sleep. When I first heard this news I jumped in quick before anyone else could and offered them a bed here if they didn't mind roughing it in a fannish way. Actually, at the time I wrote I thought there would be more staying the night than there was. This must have come to Walt like a poke in the solar plexus, but he took it like a man and accepted my invitation like a gentleman. Good recovery, that lad. He came, but did I get the talk with him that I hoped for? Of course not. You know things never go as you arrange them in fandom. There was some last minute duplicating to be done befere we left for Peterborough next morning, so I was chained by my own petard or something. One of these days, I promise myself, I'll tie that man down in a corner and get him talking. Walt, you have been warned."

Arthur Thomson, Ted Tubb, Anne Patrizio, Ethel Lindsay

Ian MacAuley, Arthur Thomson

"Actually, it was a nice evening. Wally had been in Belfast with the Willises so I had perforce to bed him down as well. Ethel was here for the night as well and we had a few people in for the evening. Joe and Anne Patrizio came; Joe had never met Walt and was anxious to do so. Bill Temple, the proudest Grandfather I know of in fandom, came along too. Teds Tubb and Forsyth were there as were Ian and Olivia McAulay. Oh, ATom was there as well. Right there you have the ingredients for a pleasant evening any night of your life. It was a case of many hands making light work'. Walt cooked the frozen peas we were having for dinner, and right well he cooked them too. Madeleine made the gravy; Ethel dashed in and out serving at table, me? I just stood around supervising. Bedtime came far too soon, but we had to be up betimes in the morning."