To the tune of Davy Crockett -

Born on a hill top in Cincinnati. Crazyist state in the land of the free.

Ok I quit. Now everyone can see why I am a filk listener and not a filker.

Yes, I was born in Cincinnati, as a matter of fact my son and I were born in the same hospital only forty years apart. We lived in Norwood just about a block from the old Twin Drive-In (where the Showcase Cinemas is today). This was my first exposure to Sci-Fi and Fantasy, because my brother and I and sometimes my cousin would sit on the top bunk of the bunk beds and watch the movies from a bedroom window. We lived on the third floor and generally had a clear view. On warm summer evenings several of the parents and a group of kids would go sit on the hill and watch the movie. Occassionaly someone at the Twin would turn a speaker up loud enough so we could hear the sound. I remember watching "Frankenstein," well almost all the "Frankenstein Movies, "I Was A Teenage Werewolf", almost any Disney movie (there were times when we actually paid to see the movies at the Twin or at a regular theater), and a variety of other movies that way.

Time passed and we moved from Norwood to Loveland and movies were few and far between because of the lack of theaters (there was only one in town and no drive-ins until a few years later). So most of my fantasy was from TV,books, comic books, and my own imagination. I remember taking my grandmother's red satin curtains and running around the house and yard claiming I was Mighty Mouse.

Time passes quickly and everyone grows and for a while I got away from fantasy and had to deal with reality. We moved several times, I finished high school and went to college (Little Miami High School and the University of Cincinnati). I earn an AA, BS, and MA. I could never figure out why I went from Arts to Science and back to Arts but it happened. However after hearing Dr. Jane's "Vegetable Soup" parts of it make more sense.

After college and while teaching, I worked duiring the summer at a Convient Food Mart, where I met a young man named Mike and we were like minded in that we shared an interest in comic books and movies. Especially since he was still in high school and I had been teaching for several years. Age difference did not matter we just shared interests. We went to local Comic Book Conventions and would go to stores looking for different comics. I did most of the driving. By 1977, Mike and I were still in contact and he called me one night and said there was this movie I just had to see. I was in the middle of working on my Masters Degree and was not sure I had the time. He insisted and one night instead of studing for an exam (I did take one of my books to look over while wating for the movie to start, I barely looked at it). The first show was sold out and we had to wait but Mike had a talent for filling me in on things without killing the movie. When we entered the theater I was not expecting much and I did not share all of Mike's enthuisam. Until the screen lit up with two words "STAR WARS." As I walked out of the theater I looked up to see if there was an Imperial Star Destroyer flying overhead ready to blast us.

Well this led to a renewed interest in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Over the next few years, my mother died, I made some other friends who shared my interest and kept in touch with Mike, as a matter of fact I was a bride's maid at his wedding. Well I went from conning people to stand in line to get friends and I tickets to the opening of "Empire Strikes Back" to meeting a group at the Dayton Mall to see the "Return of the Jedi" at a midnight showing.

And in the mean time while attending a family reunion in 1980, I met a cousin, Beth Bowels, who introduced me to Conventions and Filking. See Beth was involved in helping to plan AlterCon (1981) and she also had a friend who was aspiring to be a writer and sang filk, Julia Ecklar. Well I attended a few of the planning sessions for AlterCon and would go up to Dayton to visit Beth and friends when I could.

At the first planning session I attended for AlterCon, I met several people, but there was this one guy I noted but mentally pushed him away. There were at least two husband and wife teams, and two or three other couples. In general I was single and not looking. Well the planning for AlterCon and AlterCon came and went and I finally got the courage to speak to one of the men attending. He was nice, polite, soft spoken, college student named Joe Ellis.

Well I now hooked on attending conventions and was trying to find ways to attend and still manage to teach and earn money. I remembered at one time telling Joe that if he was ever down my way give me a call and we would go for pizza or something. Of course I extended that invitation to everyone within reason at the Conventions. I had started gaming and was finding little time for anything except working and gaming. I had met through gaming, another young woman, Heidi Pryor, who became a good friend.

One night while I was working at a part time job I got a phone call from Joe Ellis, he was in Cincinnati at a Gaming Convention and wanted to check out this resturant, the Music Palace, but did not want to go alone and wondered if I would go with him. No problem, as a matter of fact we even went to a movie, Ladyhawke, afterwards.

After that Joe and I kept running into each other at conventions, we went to the Cincinnati Zoo, The Air Force Museum, and some movies together. Then one day Joe told me he was in love with someone. And it was me. (There is a longer version of this story.) We had not set a date but then decided that we would get married during Christmas break. Well we were married December 26, 1986 and began attending conventions together and I found myself listening to more and more filk. Then in 1990, I was expecting and we added Robert to the convention scene.

In 1999, we were in Flordia, where the filking is not as well publized. In 2002 we returned to Ohio. Robert is now 14 and playing the saxophone like his father. Joe is still filking. And me well I as still listening and enjoying.

Terry Wolfe-Ellis