It was 10 years ago this month...(Part 2)

In 1998 we started attending other group activities besides the Friday night Final Frontier meeting(during this period we mustered up the courage to attend a main meeting of the SFABC
held normally at the Saddle River Valley Cultural Center or the Methodist Church across the street),and started to meet other folks such as Mike Piazza, aspiring writer; Steve Herr(i.e. Herr Herr),cycling enthusiast & jazz buff; Bill Molendyk, cartoon & wrestling buff; Kate Landis,fantasy buff; Thomas Purdy,wrestling fan(& later on Ann-Marie's whipping boy/scapegoat);Paul Dellechaie,Scientist extraordinare; Roy Greenburg, Star Trek fiction expert & Woody Allen/Mel Brooks Fan; Chris Hasselkus, movie buff extraordinaire & all around nice guy; "Professor"Bob Savoye,the "Laughing Boy", Pat Nash,aspiring writer with two young daughters(Mary & Lizzie);and many, many others. [Whoops! Forgotten "Master" Taras Wolansky,expert on Sci-Fi literature & almost everything else;]We went up into New York state for a Horror book group meeting and met the(now legendary)Brown sisters: Ann-Marie, Josephine & Kathleen. One of the great things about the SFABC/SFSNNJ was finding connections with other folks on different levels of culture(outside of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror realm). For example, Chris Hasselkuss & I share an interest in Frank Sinatra films & music;
I don't think I'd EVER met anyone as into Warner Bros. Cartoons as Pam Webber(except Ann-Marie,of course); She also loved "It's a Mad,Mad,Mad,Mad World",too. Vince Carlucci told me
that his mother was a big fan of Elvis pictures & that he(and his sister)had seen[by force] all of them,much to his dismay; But anyway...From 1998 to 2002 was the "Golden Age" of the SFABC for Jim &I; we ran the Media Tie-In book group in Livingston for him fairly successfully and were enjoying ourselves at many of the activities(Pam & I were also very close friends;she was
the BIG reason I stayed in so long; I came to adore her like the older sister that I'd never had).
But then things started to change....More in Part 3!!!