Fifty years and some months ago, I got together with a few of my friends in the science fiction fan community, and we started a…what? Club? Fanzine? A gathering of techie nerds?
Yes. All of the above, and then some. With me as the fanzine editor. I created a zine called PyroTechnics, with its first (undated) issue appearing in late winter or early spring 1976. I worked for Xerox at the time, and that helped, since I was given free rein of the many copiers/duplicators at the downtown Xerox Chicago offices, where I ran off the newsletters.
A lot of those early years’ activities have gotten a little fuzzy in my head, but we were (mostly) a midwest phenomenon, and we attended midwestern conventions like Windycon, Chambanacon, Capricon, and doubtless others. Several of us traveled to Kansas City for the 1976 Worldcon, where I (and doubtless some of the others) stood in line to shake hands with Robert A. Heinlein, who was pro GOH that year. We stole the name “General Technics” from John Brunner’s 1968 novel Stand on Zanzibar. I sometimes wonder if he knew about us, given the lack of Internet in the 1970s. (Brunner died in 1995, when the Internet was just getting out of second gear.) It wasn’t cold-hearted theft; we were honoring an excellent novel that wasn’t ishy-squishy New Wave.
Us, we wanted hard SF and lots of it. We talked about tech, we built things from blinkies to robots to much else, had fun, and wrote it up for Pyro. By 1979 we had almost a hundred members. I paid a GT member to assemble an S100 8080 CP/M machine for me in 1980, and used it for ten years. As time went on, subgroups within GT published issues of PyroTechnics themselves, with my enthusiastic blessing. I may not have all the issues that ever were, and I think my part of it faded out as Carol and I went bopping around the country while I chased jobs. I still keep in touch with a few members, though at least one of my best GT friends (and best friends generally ), George Ewing, left this world back in 2010.
Things got quiet for a long time. Then some time back, I was sent a kit by 2DKits, care of GTer physicist Bill Higgins. It was a blinkie name badge kit celebrating 50 years of General Technics, with a PIC processor and lots of LEDs. I finally finished it this afternoon, and it almost brought a tear to my eye. Fifty years, wow.
GT still exists, though I may or may not still be a member. We’ll have to see about that. As I like to say, friendship is the cornerstone of the human spirit. Time to rekindle that GT spirit if I can.
Looks like the logo and title lettering use Eurostile Bold Extended font, like so many other great science-fiction productions. See: https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/11/29/fontspots-eurostile/
Hi from another early member of GT. “Pyrotechnics” was a great inspiration to me. It helped me connect with other “techies” at a time when I felt left out as the SF cons became more about fantasy than science. After your term of editorship, George and I authored a few issues of Pyro in your honor.
GT also inspired a number of “Berserkers”, often held at Guy Wicker’s family farm. We did all sorts of large projects such as a flying saucer, 1:1 scale Patriot missile, man-carrying zeppelin, etc. I still have my “Camp Wanamakabigboom” T-shirt. 🙂
Your “Captain Cosmo’s Whizbang” was another wonderful inspiration. It encouraged me to make my 1802 Membership Card kit. Amazingly, the 1802 is still in production, and has a very active fan club.
Neat badge! I’ve made a few badge kits myself for Vintage Computer Fairs. In the retro spirit, they all use vintage microprocessors and through-hole parts. I have them for the 8080, Z80, 6502, and 1802.
[…] tested this again a couple of days ago when I constructed a PC board kit name badge that puts on its own light show. Building something that requires sharp-tip soldering is best done slowly, and sometimes requires a […]