One the things about sf cons was (and I hope still is!) the room parties which took place in people’s hotel rooms. In Britain, these were generally secretive late-night affairs where you had to know someone to find out where they were happening, and you smuggled booze into the hotel. Many is the young fan who has been greeted on entry to a room party by a cry of, “Oh, no! Not another bloody bottle of cider.”

Hotels seemed mostly to turn a blind eye to this, though the Hotel Metropole in Brighton, location of the 1979 Worldcon, took exception and closed down room parties, whereupon the party that spontaneously generated in the Ladies Powder Room became fannish legend.

At Chicon IV, on the other hand, you were asked to let Member Services know about room parties so they could put it in the daily newsletter and post notices around the hotel. Nonetheless, I got told in the traditional manner about two parties on Thursday night, both starting at 9 o’clock, which seemed a bit early to me. One was in room 2605 on the 26th floor and the other 2221 on the 22nd.

Now, to get to a room in the Hyatt Regency, you needed to know which tower it was in, for the Hyatt Regency had a West Tower and an East Tower. The room numbering system should have been enough – rooms xx00-xx50 were in the West and xx51-xx99 in the East – but wasn’t. Many and several were the fans wandering mournfully about, after taking the lift – sorry, elevator – up the wrong tower.

I don’t think I made that error and did manage to get to at least one of the parties, and wrote down the names of Hope Leibowitz and Bob Weber, who were probably the hosts, but possibly just people I met. But the thing is, enjoying a party and writing notes about a party are not compatible activities. So I suppose I must have enjoyed the party. All the parties.

This is where the downside of not staying in the main convention hotel strikes. After a party, if you want to have any sleep at all, you have to find your way through the streets to the hotel you are staying in. I must have managed that, too.