Serenity at last! by Vilavon

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Serenity at last!

POSTED BY: VILAVON
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 7, 2004 08:57
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Tuesday, September 7, 2004 5:58 AM

I'm still flying in 2021. How about you?

This is for all of you fans with kids. I posted something along these lines a while back, but now I have real life experience to share.
This past Labor Day weekend, my son and I attended DragonCon in Atlanta.
Hmmmm? I thought to myself. How will a 14 year old kid react to something I am so familiar with and once upon a long time ago, filled up so much of my life?
Horrible trip to Atlanta. Alabamastan Highway Patrol decided NOT to tell anyone that the reason we were all sitting on the interstate for FOUR HOURS was that there had been a chemical spill just a few miles down the road. We doubled back and took the route through Birmingham. The big enthusiasm deflator was a sign (after driving almost 90 miles to Birmingham) reading ATLANTA 242 Miles!
Grrrr! Arrrgh! Indeed!
Nobody was happy.
Got to my pal, Scott's house (Thanks, Scott!) in Dunwoody at approximately ONE A.M.
More Grrrr, Less Arrrgh.
He wanted to stay up and catch up. (Thanks, Scott!) I was a pessimist for a long time (More on that later) and this wasn't starting out to be family fun.
Cut to: Friday morning. Checking in at the Con. I got checked in fine. My son, Sean, got checked in fine. My best friend, Mike, who took this tour through Hellabama with us: not so fine. Kind of bad. Not really what we could call good.
After a relatively SMALL amount of haggling and two phone and radio conversations, he got checked in. BUT....the trip of the previous day had taken it's toll. We were all hungry. We all ate. Grumbling along with our stomachs.
We decided to find the Browncoats table and "hang with our homies".
Strange thing. The "Badgers", as they became known, didn't know what a "Browncoat" was. But with the help of no one with an official badge, we managed to find our peeps right outside the door of a dealer's room.
Things were looking up. Not just comparatively, either. We felt like we knew these (you) people. We did, in fact. Browncoat1 and family were pleasant as they could be. We yacked for a bit and ran about looking for other stuff to do.
My son and I spent the entire con withing ten feet of each other.
Here's the " more on that later " part. The boy and I had been apart for more than seven years. No, he wasn't working on his doctorate. Bad divorce begets bad everything, including parenting chances. I hardly ever got to see Sean, thanks to an uncooperative ex. That's all over though. She's mellowed and we talk nice and not through gritted teeth, either. It's all good, as the younguns say.
We did the walkabout thing, a ritual I have come to depend on at each convention. Breaking in shoes. Showing my son all the people in costumes and.....out. He handled this culture shock better than I remember handling my first con when I was 15, several decades ago.
We picked up freebies. Hey,I'm a flyer hog. Sue me.
Finally found ourselves back at the old Browncoats table. Some skinny girl with a tattoo just above the line where her belt should have been was just hogging the table. I mean, we only had a weekend, lady. Spread out. Browncoat1's daughter then looked up at the taller waif and asked a question that I didn't hear. Anyway, Skinny Girl turns around to answer and MYGODMYGODMYGODDOYOUKNOWWHOTHATIS?THAT'SJEWELSTAITE!QUICKGETNEXTTOHERANDI'LL TAKEYOURPICTURESTANDINGTHERLIKEYOUKNOWHER!!!
I did calm down. Jewel was so nice to a kid who loved her show and a dad who went into DEFCON mode to get his son something to remember this trip by besides a grape Mountain Dew at an Alabamoid truck stop.
And believe it or else, it got BETTER. I don't need to tell anyone who attended DragonCon 18 how great Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin were to the fans. Take it as read that all were funny ,talented, open and understanding people. I had the opportunity to share something that I love with my son. Seven years of separation disappeared that Labor Day weekend. I told Adam Baldwin that I wanted to thank the Firefly/Serenity folks thanks for bringing together two people who, until two years ago were virtual strangers, connected by blood, but divided by divorce. Adam had kind words to Sean about his own experience as a child of divorce. ....Believe it or not, I just had to stop typing for a second to wipe away a tear. Thanks just doesn't do it. Firefly was just a show. Sernity, as good as I know it will be, is just a movie. But the people inhabiting these roles are friends. They are real people. And they just happened to close a father/son gap.
The kid is already talking about next year; when we go to see Jayne, Mal and Kaylee again. They may not all make it there. We may get others of this group of fine actors who brought to life people who don't exist, who wouldn't even be born yet. I look forward to spending the years ahead with a son I can now relate to. I cherish the memory of meeting so many fans and friends of the show. We might even start a tradition like the "Deadheads", following cons with Firefly/Serenity guests featured (FLYHEADS, anyone?)Next Labor Day, gang! Keep 'em flying!

Vilavon AKA Claude

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Tuesday, September 7, 2004 6:05 AM

JAYNEZTOWN

amazing story !

can't wait for the movie

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Tuesday, September 7, 2004 8:57 AM

SHINY

Great story, thanks for sharing! Our BDHs are the real thing, aren't they?

Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.

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