We were there representing the Phantom Friends as Judy Bolton fans, as we had the year before. Two of the members attending for the first time behaved very badly promoting a political agenda they were quite radical about (anti-smoking), and they harassed not only members of our group and our hosts, but also Potter County citizens who were smoking. And this was way back in 1992 when smoking was still perfectly legal everywhere. It made us very uncomfortable and embarrassed, and our hosts asked me to make sure those two did not come back again.
I took this up with the Phantom Friends group leader when I got home and she refused to say anything about it to the two members. After all, they were her friends and important to her in the group for the work they did. So I wrote to them and told them they were not welcome in Coudersport again, by wish of our hosts.
This was not met well by either one of them, and one went so far as to tell people for years afterward that I had threatened to kill her and used to go to her home town and stalk her, and that friends of mine who went to following PF reunions did so only to spy on her for me. Amazing, eh? So, if you have heard the ongoing rumors that I threaten to kill people and that I stalk people, this is where they came from. A lunatic Phantom Friend.
We then started The Judy Bolton Society with the policy that we take no stand on political, religious, or moral ideology or agendas and do not discriminate against any members or non-members relating to such issues. In the years following, we attended the annual Judy Bolton Day weekend as members of The Judy Bolton Society, and we had no problems with discriminatory behavior by adults acting like children.
Here is the complete first Judy Bolton Society Newsletter:
Click on images to enlarge for reading. If they don't get big enough, they will if you print them.
