June 18 2005
Our 5:th annual meeting at the Fantomen theme park in Eskilstuna.
With: Hasse Lindahl and Stefan Nagy
Twenty-third Event
Eskilstuna, Fantomenland June 18th 2005
Attending Members: Brian Jensen, Torbjörn Onegård, Jan-Ola Sjöberg, Bosse Engberg, Björn Harnby, Magnus Eriksson, John Pettersson, Christer Borg, Henrik Bengtsson, Mikael Lyck, Ulrik Lundin, Lars Fagerstedt, Åsa Svennberg and Hans-Erik Hansson.
Honorary member: Hasse Lindahl
Special guests: Stefan Nagy (special friend of SCLFMBEC), Tommy Eriksson (Parken Zoo)
Guest: Tone Berggren
The traditional summer meet in Eskilstuna took place again on a bright sunny day. Most members gathered outside “Delfinen” eagerly awaiting tickets for the amusement park. After sending off the loved ones (if applicable) into the park, the meeting started with tasty sandwiches and coffee.
The members had just had time to get re-acquainted since last time and swallow some of their coffee before Tommy Eriksson – the representative from the Zoo – came and had his traditional chat with us. Apart from the “same old”, where he among other things tells us about Lee Falk’s visit to the park in 1986, he let us know that Fantomenland will have its 20th anniversary next year, 2006. Tommy said that he really would like the celebrations to coincide with SC’s next meeting in the park. Not only that, he wanted us to take part in the same. He said that he would get in contact with us (through Bosse) some time during the fall of 2005 to start planning the event.
We proceeded into the conference room, where the actual gathering took place.
The members passed around some of the goodies they had brought along. Some high-lights were Torbjörn’s very nice large-scale “hang-on-the-wall” McCoy pictures. Also, Torbjörn’s tattoo was met with considerate awe. Björn brought quite a few things as usual, among which were some South-American Phantom-statues, knitting descriptions and magazines. Brian brought along a Fantomen magazine with special cover (a magazine only the ones who went on gathering 22 to Alprint in Finland has been able to get) to show.
Fantomen himself came to visit us of course, and he was photographed a number of times. He also had to work a lot to mark all members (who so chose) with his good mark. As we pointed out that he had his ring on the wrong hand, he stated: “Are you serious? I didn’t know that!” And with a fainter voice: “I’ll keep it here anyway, it’s much easier to mark the kids using my right hand.” An additional point of interest could be that “Uncle Walker” seemed to enjoy himself very much; he wore a smile on his face during the whole visit. But, was I the only one who expected him to be taller in real life?
Magnus asked our Honorary guest Hans Lindahl to draw a picture while we were talking. He agreed, and a very impressive portrait of the Ghost who Walks sitting on his Skull Throne emerged on the paper. It was later passed around for everyone to see.
The gathering ended with lunch at “Terrassen”, where the discussions went on. Some members then chose to leave Parken Zoo, while other stayed to have a stroll through Fantomenland with the Water Fall and Skull Cave and then roam the souvenir searching for valuables.
Henrik Bengtsson
Member # 39