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Fandom: My Favorite Obsession

"Fandom" Is a term coined as early as 1903 and refers to anybody with more than a casual interest in a sport, activity, celebrity, TV show or movie. It can encompass an entire sub-culture (as in Sci-Fi fans) who devote a huge amount of of time and energy to their interest, frequently going to conventions, dressing like their favorite characters, collecting memorabilia, Etc.

I have a certain amount of exzperience in this area as I was a rabid "Rocky Horror" freak for a while.

It all started in 1983, the day after I saw Tim Curry hosting "Saturday Night Live". I realize this was quite a while after the cult phenomenon of Rocky Horror started, so I came to the party a bit late. But some friends and I were talking about it and I told them I finally wanted to see what this cult thing was all about. We made plans to go see it at the Marketplace in Long Beach the following Saturday and my friends gave me a breakdown of acceptable Rocky Horror behavior:

1. Bring rice (uncooked), toilet paper, a squirt gun, flashlight or ciggie lighter, toast and hot dogs (again uncooked).

2.Don't throw anything at the screen (Thery still tell the story about some idiot who threw a canned ham at the screen when Meatloaf came on. They stopped the movie and everybody was thrown out.)

3.Be prepared not to be able to hear the movie as the audience will probably be making too much racket.

4.Don't make fun of other people's costumes.

On the appointed night, after a lesson in doing the Time Warp. ("Just a jump to the left-and then a step to the right....no, RIGHT...THE OTHER RIGHT, DUMBASS!) we made our way to the theater and were greeted by a sight right out of Mardi Gras. There were girls dressed as boys and boys dressed as girls and a few that I figured were a toss-up. A couple of girls were dressed in garbage bags ("The Sleaze Sisters" a reference to another Tim Curry film)and a couple of guys were dressed as Meatloaf and Frank N. Furter were selling memorablia out front where I bought the first of what would become a vast collection of Rocky Horror Buttons.

At this point a mall Rent-A-Cop came out of the theater, blew a whistle and announced that there would be "NO throwing of rice! NO squirting water! NO throwing toilet paper, toast, hotdogs or whatever the hell else you people throw..." He didn't get to finish because we inundated him with rice, water, toilet paper, toast and hot dogs.

When we got inside we were greeted by the sight of their performing

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