The 1997 General Hospital Weekend
by T n' T


Rec.Arts.TV.Soaps.ABC.'s
Alternate Altercation

Saturday July 19th 1997

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Adventure Menu | The High Lonesome Gig | GH Weekend Menu
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This is the story of our GH weekend in L.A..  It's long, meant to

be read in parts and sprinkled with top ten lists.  We hope that

you enjoy it, and get a little of the sense of what it was like to be 

there.  We had decided in advance to attend The High Lonesome

concert Saturday night and The Interact Theatre (with Matt Ashford)

on Sunday night, but the rest of the weekend was up in the air 

depending on what last minute tickets we could acquire.



Late on Friday July 18th or rather very early on Saturday July 19th

we set out for Los Angeles California, from Tucson Arizona.  It's

not a very long trip, only a seven to eight hour drive, which passes

quickly when you play High Lonesome music.  And since Razz asked...



Top Ten Things You See On I10 From Tucson To Los Angeles

10)Wreckage

 9) High gas prices

 8) Cabazon Dinosaurs

 7) "Rest Area - Closed"

 6) Hundreds of windmills

 5) Tumbleweeds

 4) UFOs

 3) Bored Highway Patrolmen

 2) Phoenix

And the number one thing you see on I10 from Tucson to Los Angeles:

 1) Road Kill



When we arrived in Los Angeles we went straight to The 

Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City.  After wandering around the 

hotel for awhile we  found the announcement board of which we 

had been told.  Well, there was no big handwritten note announcing

someone's miraculous intention of selling Luncheon tickets.  There

were tickets to the Kurth/Taylor event that night (too late, we

were already going to THL.) and tickets for Maurice Benard's

event after the Luncheon.  The board directed us over to rooms

105 and 106, poolside, The Soap Boutique.  We went over there,

and two nice ladies put us on a waiting list for tickets, should any

become available.  We looked at the merchandise, t-shirts, hats,

Kurth/Taylor stuff, etc..  But we were still saving aside our money,

in case those golden tickets appeared.



Exhausted from the trip, we didn't even consider going to the Kin

Shriner event scheduled for two that afternoon. We went over to 

our big round Holdiay Inn (the Lodge had been all booked up) and

crashed.  After a few hours sleep, we got ready for the RATSA 

alternate altercation and THL concert.  We had remembered the

time incorrectly and arrived at the Santa Monica Pier at 6:15

instead of 6:45.  So no one was at the asssigned meeting place by

the historic Merry-go-round.  So we strolled along the pier and 

took a picture of a  giant lobster, and bought souveniers for the folks

back home.  We went back to the Merry-go-round still empty of 

fans and waited.  We realized that we'd never met most of these

people, (Razz was sure to be late) so we might not recognize

them...



Top Ten Ways To Identify A RATSAfarian

10) "General Hospital - Ask for Mercy" bumper sticker

 9) Speaks primarily in acronyms

 8) Handy emergency supply of chocolate

 7) Wonders how there computer is doing home alone

 6) Carrying map of Port Charles instead of Los Angeles

 5) Incredibly talented, intelligent, good-looking, courteous, and,

    above all, modest, human beings

 4) Strange green glow from monitor irradiation

 3) Wearing a fuzzy little Koala Bear

 2) Juxtaposition of "Simone" and "VR Troopers" in the same

    sentence

And the number one way to identify a RATSAfarian

 1) The Secret Handshake



A young man and a woman walked into the Merry-Go-Round.  It

was instant tribal recognition.  Adrian, and we could tell it was him,

asked if we were RATSAers.  We introduced ourselves and he 

introduced us to his RATSA friend Laurel.  It was still early, so

the four of us went outside and looked at the polluted Santa Monica

water.  We talked about Australia, California and the Rat Pack.

We went back to the Merry-Go-Round and then the GH fans began

to show up in force.  McAmy and Arda, SturdyClyde and her husband 

TolerantJerry, Kathyrn "Geneaology is my bag" Basset, Michele, and

darn it, a nice girl whose name we can't remember.  SturdyClyde 

handed out special GH picture magnets to everyone. (We chose

a Kevin and Lucy picture that matched our web page background.)

Kathryn handed out maps of Port Charles, circa 1981. And Adrian 

gave everyone a small furry clip on Koala bear with a little hard hat.



The enlarged group started down the pier.  We stopped and watched

a magician pour water out of a newspaper, but couldn't stay long 

enough to watch him make that dove disappear, or whatever it 

was he intended to do to it.  We deserted the group halfway down

the pier, because it was getting kind of chilly (for us Arizonans) and

we wanted to retrieve our coats from the car.  While we were down

there we stopped by the Merry-go-round to see if any more RATSAers

had shown up.  As we left there, we spotted Razz and Rika and Pat.

We promptly handed out gifts.  (For Rika, a Kevin/Ryan tape. For

Razz a framed 4x6 picture of the Santa Monica Civic Center, 

autographed by Rick Springfield.)  While they were putting their

gifts in Razz' car.  We walked down to the Pier looking for the other

RATASfarians.   We walked all the way down to the end and back

but couldn't find them.  We did find webmaster Jeff Jungblut and his

friends Dave and Susan.  We chatted as we walked back to "Rusty's

Surf Ranch". 



As it turns out the rest of the group had already ducked into Rusty's

(an hour before our reservations).  After finally getting our change

from the cashier, we went in too.  RATSA folks accounted for the

entire middle row of tables. (The AOL people were off on one side.)

We took our seats somewhere in the middle.  Met Christine and 

her friend, and Marliss and a few other people.  AnneBPT stopped by

before going to set up her video camera.  Razz introduced Cheryl

to the table, and ebullient LRC (Kristin) made her appearance.



Our waiter finally got around to us (He bore a striking resemblance

to Billy Warlock.) and drinks were ordered and red, white and blue

chips with salsa (and no blue chips).  There was much chattering 

going on before the Mark Allen band came on.  Mark is also the 

bassist for The High Lonesome, for those who don't know. They

were a straight rock kind of band with a Journey flavor.



Next The High Lonesome came on.  And that will be in the next

part of our report.




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