I had the pleasure of spending some time with Jimmy Doohan. He was a sweetheart of a man. He was always fun to listen to as a guest at a convention. He was bashing Shatner before it was the thing to do.

My favorite memory was at I-Con back in the late 80's. This is a con run at SUNY, Stonybrook. At the time, I was President of the Boston Star Trek Association. Dave Ryan, Howard Cronson, Dawn Yasharis and myself were having one of our best weekends at this convention. We had tried a number of times during the weekend to get together privately with Jimmy, but his convention duties kept him pretty busy. He remembered us from his visits to Boston and really seemed to want to get together.

"Why don't you cone and get me at my hotel tomorrow morning at 7AM? We can go to breakfast." He smiled.

"Jim, are you sure? 7AM is kind of early."

"Sure, no problem. I'll be ready and waiting."

The next morning we were all loaded in our car on time and strode into the lobby of his hotel exactly at 7AM. Being the top dog, I was the one to call Jimmy and let him know we were there and ready to start the day.

The phone rang in his room.

Again.

And again.

When the receiver was picked up I had expected to hear the deep melodic Canadian voice on the other end, instead I was greeted with something which sounded like a belching monster from a Japanese monster movie.

"H-h-h-eeeeeeee-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o." he groaned, deep and painful.

"Ah, Jimmy, It's Jack. We're here for breakfast."

"What? Breakfast? What time is it?"

"7AM. Just like you told us."

"Oh, shit. I'm sorry I got in really late from the party and......" he sort of trailed off from there.

As I looked for a rock under which I could fit, "That's OK, Jim, we'll see you at the convention a little later."

"Yeah, yeah...."....click.

The convention was held on campus and the main hall had a large gathering area. Two hours later is was filled with conventioneers. Then, in walked a wide awake Jimmy Doohan.

"THOSE PEOPLE", at the top of his lungs for all to hear and point ing directly at us; no questions asked, "are the people who woke me out of a sound sleep this morning!"