So I recently scanned in some OLD photos from yesteryear of me at my very first Star Trek convention.  It was an event called Trekfest that took place (I think) in West Palm Beach, Florida.  My friends John and Eric went with me.  Eric drove (John and I didn’t have licenses yet) and John dressed up in the costume contest with me.

(Back then, no one called it “cosplay.”  It was just “wearing a costume.”)

We won the costume contest as “The 5th Guys”: the security officers who always beamed down with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty only to die some horrible death.  Our AWESOME prize for winning?  A Dick Tracy movie poster and $20 in cash.

That’s big money for teenagers in 1990.  We spent it well in the dealer’s room.  (You can see a couple more photos here.)

The guest at that convention was George Takei.  Years later, I’d tell him about meeting him at “my first con” over drinks: