Yep! Howard Days on June 11-12-13 at the Robert E. Howard Museum in Cross Plains, Texas is happening just four weeks from now and everything is in place to show you The Best "Three" Days in Howard Fandom! Project Pride of Cross Plains, the Robert E. Howard Foundation and the Robert E. Howard United Press Association (REHupa) will be there to help you enjoy yourselves to the max!
This will be quite the year for anniversaries and we plan on celebrating them right! For Bob Howard's 120th birthday year - there will be cake at the Friday Hot Dog lunch! For the 60th Anniversary of the seminal book from Lancer, CONAN the ADVENTURER, there will be one on display on Howard's tombstone! For the 40th Anniversary of Howard Days, we have the event's originator Rusty Burke as Guest of Honor, along with original attendee Special Guest "Indy" Bill Cavalier. They'll both talk your ear off about Howard Days History. The award-winning film The Whole Wide World turns 30 this year, so we'll present a viewing along with commentary and a panel featuring the movie's screenwriter, Michael Scott Myers and cast member Ben Mouton! And the Robert E. Howard Foundation will be there, celebrating 20 years of good works perpetuating the Life and Legacy of Ol' Two-Gun Bob.
All the "regular" happenings are still, uh...happening! Tours of the REH Museum happen both Friday and Saturday (and the Museum & Gift Shop is open Thursday from 12-4 too!) Friday gives us the Bus Tour of the land surrounding Cross Plains to show some of Bob's haunts, Saturday a.m. is the Walking Tour of the downtown area and Saturday p.m. we'll do a Grounds Tour around the Museum. The Cross Plains Public Library is open to show off their collection of original Howard typescripts and pulp magazines with Howard stories in them. On Friday you can get a nifty souvenir postal cancellation stamp at the CPPO. The Cross Plains Review across the street will have a bunch of cool Howard Days merchandise too. Speaking of merchandise, the yard surrounding the Pavilion will have vendors displaying all sorts of REH and related items for sale. You can work on your Howard Collection there!
And don't forget the panels: check the EVENTS schedule for times and places - we've got six of them lined up with a wide variety of Howard topics, presented by Howard scholars and fans. And late Saturday afternoon come to the Barbara Barrett Memorial Porchlight Poetry and read Howard poetry aloud mere feet away from where he wrote it!
Hungry? Thirsty? Water and pop is found in the Pavilion's big cooler. We've got a Hot Dog Lunch on Friday at Noon and the Celebration Banquet (and Silent Auction) takes place starting at 5 over at the Cross Plains Community Center. The Cross Plains Library is doing a Tex-Mex fundraiser dinner on Saturday late afternoon. Saturday lunch can be had at Lowe's Grocery Store where the Cross Plains VFD will have brisket sandwiches as a fundraiser, too.
In attendance at HD there will be a passel of REH special guests, authors, artists, professionals, biographers, fans & enthusiasts - all to help fellow fans in their appreciation of Bob Howard. We've got bloggers, You Tubers, podcasters, comic book creators, publishers, fanziners and filmmakers all showing up to impart information, wisdom and opinions, much to the delight of everyone. Some extemporaneous events & happenings and impromptu conversations always are on tap and you just have to be there to experience the entire scope of Howard Days!
Howard Fellowship is probably the most important event of the entire weekend. While it is centered around hanging at the Pavilion, it happens all over Cross Plains during HD. Howard Days provides the best opportunity for all of us to be among like minded friends (old & new), gathered to celebrate, enjoy and honor the amazing career, life and legacy of our friend Bob Howard.
So come on down to Howard Days. Just show up! It's a family reunion of Howard Fans - you don't need a special invite! There's plenty of room for everybody!
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