Written & published by Fred Patten on the Bruce Pelz mimeo, November 3, 1964. Intended for Apa L, 3^rd Mailing, LASFS meeting #1421, November 5, 1964; and as a post-mailing to the Neffer Amateur Press Alliance, 22^nd Mailing; and as a general notification of a forthcoming Change of Address. Current address: 5156 Chesley Avenue, Los Angeles, Calif., 90043. Phone: AX 1-1310

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Fandom is full of surprises, and I received a couple of my biggest yet when I went out to Al Lewis' and Ron Ellik's house last week to publish RR #2. Not to keep you in suspense, Ron announced that his employers are transferring him from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., for at least a year. As this would leave half of their house vacant, Al was now looking for someone else to move in to share expenses. Was I interested? I was.

1825 Greenfield Avenue has been one of the major centers of LA Fandom since Al & Ron settled there almost three years ago, I guess it was. As they are both about as settled, practical, and peaceful as fans can be, they soon gave the impression of having been there always, and that they would continue to be there for the rest of foreseeable time. And now Ron is leaving; not just 1825 Greenfield, but Los Angeles altogether. This seems to be the season for fans being transferred by their companies; Wally Weber, then Lee Jacobs, and now Ron. Though fans come and go in Los Angeles at a fairly steady rate, Ron's disappearance is one that'll be felt longer than most. Ron classes more as one of the steady, solid pillars of our small society than as one of the more flamboyant fans that makes top billing in the local gossip. His leaving will create a hole in LA Fandom that can't be filled by just any fan who next moves out here. There's no telling how long Ron will be gone, but it'll be for at least a year -- maybe permanently, if he likes the East Coast. I hope not; Ron is a valued member of our small group -- a real friend; not just someone it's fun to be with at a party -- and we'd like to him back someday. I hope the feeling is mutual; I am afraid we may need Ron a lot more than he needs any of us. Anyhow, though I hope you enjoy your new position, Ron, I also hope you'll be returning to Los Angeles in the not to distant future. A selfish wish, perhaps, but there you are. Good friends are hard to come by, even in Fandom.

This leaves the vacancy at 1825 Greenfield Ave., which I'll be filling. The big surprise to me here is not so much in the fact that I was invited to move in as it was in that I accepted! Fans have invited me to move in with them before (or at least to get a place near theirs to create a bigger "fan community"), but I was never too interested in these offers. Part of this was sheer inertia. I'm still living in the house I was born & raised in (to use the poetic homily; I was actually born in a hospital like most modern babies), and I saw no immediate desirability in going to the trouble of changing this. Another part of it was a reluctance to get involved in Fandom on a full-time basis. I like my home life peaceful and settled; I can entirely sympathize with how Bilbo Baggins felt before Gandalf came calling on him that day. And, while fans are wonderful people, and LASFS-type gatherings are fine things to drop in on when you feel like it, I didn't care to submerge myself into such an hectic atmosphere beyond recall. Living at home here, I've been in much the same position as Alec Guinness in "The Captain's Paradise"; I can have a quiet staid life part of the time, and a fun-filled exhausting life part of the time, and I can choose for myself how much of each to get involved in. A third reason is that, until just recently, I've been a university student, spending money rather than making it, and it was financially easier to continue living with my parents than to set out on my own. Fourthly, considering how fans move about, I didn't want to go to the trouble of moving to a new location, only to have all my roommates and fannish neighbors immediately hop over to the other side of the city, which might leave me up the creek.

The current situation finds several things changed, however. Now that I'm out of UCLA and working at a regular position, I can afford to move. I've been planning on moving as soon as I could afford to, anyway. Our house here is old and cramped; I want to get out on my own, someplace large enough that I can take my sf collection out of storage in the garage. Life at 1825 Greenfield Ave. should combine the best aspects of both existences. It's located in West LA; a very nice section of the city, near to UCLA, Hollywood, and Santa Monica. I couldn't afford to live in such a location on my own; going in with Al will make it possible for me. The house is half of a double, and has wall-to-wall carpeting, built-in gas heating, a hi-fi (Al's), and similar comforts. In addition, it has such fannish benefits as the LASFS mimeograph and publishing equipment, so I'll no longer have to drive 10 miles every time I want to publish a fanzine. Ron's bedroom, which will be mine, should provide ample space for me to set out my collection, though I'll probably have to build floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and I'll finally be able to hang up the pictures I've been buying at Con Auctions and Art Shows for the last 3 years. One of the things I was worrying about was finding an apartment that would allow me to put in bookcases and hang pictures on the walls; so many won't for fear you'll "damage the basic structure". I understand the landlord is a very pleasant person, so there should be no danger of having to move soon & unexpectedly, as seems to be the case with so much of LA Actifandom. 1825 Greenfield Ave. is a fan center, but not overly so. Al shares my tastes for peace & a settled home life, and he doesn't let things get out of hand. I think that I'll be able to get along with Al more than I could with most of the rest of LA Fandom, on such a permanent basis. As it was, I was planning on getting an apartment of my own after the first of the year anyway, so I'll only be moving things up a couple of months. In addition, I'll be getting a pleasant rooming companion and all sorts of benefits in housing comfort and fannishness, and -- assuming Al couldn't find another roommate -- I'll be helping to keep a Center of Fandom alive. About the only drawback to the new location is that it's even farther from my job than my current home; I had been planning to move closer to work, rather than farther away from it. But 1825 Greenfield Ave. is only a couple of blocks away from the LA freeway system, and when the Santa Monica Freeway is finished next year, it'll take me right downtown with even less trouble than I have now. I guess I can stand getting up 45 minutes earlier for a few months.

Ron will be leaving next week, and I'll probably move in during the weekend of the 14^th-15^th. Therefore, as of November 16^th, my address will be 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles 90025, rather than 5156 Chesley Avenue, LA 90043. N'APA members take special notice of this: zines for the December N'APA mailing should be sent to the new address! No great calamity will occur immediately if anybody absentmindedly sends mail to 5156 Chesley Ave.; my parents will continue to live there awhile and they'll save it for me. But for quickest answer, make sure this new address is in your address files. And my parents are planning on selling this house soon, now that I'm moving out and my youngest sister has just left to enter college, so 5156 Chesley Avenue should become a dead address, fannishly speaking, in another few months.

It'll seem strange, leaving the house and neighborhood I grew up in. Aside from a year's stay in a college fraternity that didn't work out at all, it'll be the first time I've ever really left home. This neighborhood has been a quiet and peaceful area to grow up in, and I'll be leaving a lot of memories behind. Yet I'm not losing too much. I'll be leaving no neighborhood friends; all the neighborhood kids I grew up with have left long ago. An increasingly rapid turnover in home ownership is just beginning to get up speed; several Negro families have moved in in the last year, and a mild panic selling is developing. My parents have been wanting to move to a newer home for some years now, just waiting for me and my sisters to get out on our own so that they'll be free to get a small apartment for themselves; they're getting anxious to sell this house and lot before local land values drop any. Most of the local stores I've known have been disappearing, as their owners have reached retirement age or the new large shopping centers have forced them out of business. So my old "home life" is beginning to pass into oblivion, no matter whether I leave this address or not. On the other hand, I'm not losing any of my fannish friends; if anything, I'm moving into closer contact with them. Living in West LA will put me right next to UCLA-oriented Westwood village's shopping area; more familiar to me after 5 years at UCLA than the changing local stores around here. The new neighbors will be no more unfamiliar to me than the new neighbors replacing the old families in this area. All in all, I won't be changing too much after all. I'll be handling my own home affairs for the first time -- I imagine that Al can give me a lot of handy hints in this field. It's a change I'm looking forward to. I imagine you'll be reading about the results in my fanzines for the next few months to come.

- oOo -

The LASFS Halloween Party was another success this year -- I guess; I was too busy playing cards to take much note of it. I debated wearing my High Overlord costume again, and finally decided against it. For one thing, I've worn it to too many masquerades for it to be worth anything; for another it was just too cold to spend the evening bare-legged in a toga. I'm surprised the girls in their skimpy costumes didn't freeze. It was nice seeing some of the non-regulars who showed up; Ruth Berman, down from Berkeley; Mitch Evans and Frank Coe, from wherever they've been hiding; one of Bruce's friends (Tom Tidwell?) from Florida; and even Barney Bernard. It was nice seeing Barney mostly because I got in the way of about $1.60 of the money he was throwing about over the card table. Most of the costumes were very well done (I hope somebody got photos of Katya!), and the nibblements were excellent (especially the chocolate cake.) Everybody have fun?

-- BEING MAILING COMMENTS ON THE SECOND MAILING

Bruce Pelz - It was in that last half hour of brag at the Rolfes' that I definitely made a profit for that weekend, with something like three runs in a row. I wish you'd stayed in the game longer. (On second thought, that would've changed the order of the hands, so maybe it's just as well you didn't.) ## I tend toward the view that the Apa L mailings should go to everyone who shows up at a LASFS meeting, though I realize attendance is so chaotic as to make this impossible. Unless you want to set a quota of something like 50 copies, which would probably leave you with a lot of left-overs ¾ of the time. I guess 30 is about the right number, though we might consider raising it to 35. We did run out of both the first two mailings, after all, with some people going begging. What should be done on such occasions as election meetings, when we can count on an attendance of at least 30-40?

Pat & Dick Lupoff - Late m.c.'s are still better than no m.c.'s; by all means, let's have 'em. ## If your new house doesn't have a number, maybe you can get away with assigning your own. Something fannish. 770?

Dave Van Arnam -- Oh, Apa L was about as spontaneous as anything ever is in LA Fandom. We tend to think in grandiose terms, with all sorts of formal rules & dress built-in. It comes of having a Coventranian background. ## Yes, there is an advantage to holding club meetings with a weekend directly following. However, one of the reasons the LASFS breaks up so early is that we don't really have a place of our own in which to get together. We have to be out of the Silverlake Playground by 10:00 p.m. -- city playground rules -- and we can't get too homey at Kal's because it's a commercial snack shop, and by the time we get over to the Labyrinth, most of the fans have gotten tired of all the moving about and gone home. When we were meeting back at the old Fan Hilton, meetings used to go on to 1 and 2 in the morning, even though most members did have to go to work the next day. ## Apa L distribution is still too unsettled for us to block out any firm policy. Several of the localites have made noises about trying out an Apa L zine of their own; If we do get more regular publishers from within our weekly attendees, that'd leave less copies for interested out-of-town members, especially if they miss a mailing. We'll have to let things shape up a bit more before we decide on any firm distribution rules.

Don Fitch -- Another beautiful cover; I hope you can keep up the quality. ## Tom Gilbert comes in weekly from the Pasadena area; if you move out that way, maybe it'd pay for you two to get together about sharing a ride into LA for LASFS meetings. How close is Tom to the Descanso Gardens? ## I agree with you about wasted space; the sight of all those 1-pagers with blank backsides hurts. ## When LASFSers aren't criticizing each other for being cold to outsiders, they're complaining that too much friendliness is dragging in all sorts of creeps and undesirables. Ho, hum.

Owen Hannifen -- Thanks for the historical record of the Labyrinth moves. I hope you manage to stay put at this newest one long enough to get a slan shack started again. You've sure got enough fans around here. When's Don Simpson getting back in town? ## Owen, baby, it's Apa L. LApa isn't until the end of the month.

Phil Castora -- An apa for comic book fans? Roscoe! I'll have to ask Alderson to bring one of their mailings a round so that I can read it. I wonder if we could take out a joint membership in the name of LA Fandom. There're enough comic fans in the area -- yourself, myself, Pelz, Dan Alderson, Bruce Roberts, Hannifen, Blackbeard -- to keep up activity requirements between us. ## Good picture of Hank Stine. The others aren't so recognizable. Your cartoon of Ed Baker looks more like Bruce Pelz.