British Airways Ride the Rocket Contest

This was back in 1998, but I didn't have a blog back then, so I'll write about it now.

I was in a Star Trek club, and I went to visit some friends in another Star Trek club. And while I was there, someone mentioned that British Airways was having a costume contest. I had won a few things with the borg costume, so I thought, why not?

So I looked on their website and found out the where and when and all of that. From what I read it looked like they would allow a maximum of 500 entries, but they would be giving away 50 pairs of round trip tickets to London. So, that would mean if I got to the place on time, I'd have a 1 in 10 chance of at least winning a pair of plane tickets. The chance of winning the all expense paid trip was slim, but at least I had a good chance of winning plane tickets.

And then I got to thinking, that if I could come up with a costume for my husband, that would increase our chances of winning to 1 in 5. I thought my husband does a good fake British accent, British Airways contest, and the costume theme was space traveler....

How about Dr. Who?

But, my husband wasn't interested. We didn't have the scarf back then, but I thought trying to win plane tickets to London was a good excuse to get one. But he didn't want to do that. The contest was in September, in Dallas, and he just couldn't be bothered to put on warm clothes, even for that.

Okay. But he's sure that we're going to win with just my costume. Me, I'm not so sure. The contest is like two days after a local sci-fi convention, and I thought I might have a lot of competition from that. Maybe some locals, and maybe even some non-locals who might stay in town a couple of extra days to be in the contest. Still, if I can just get to the place before 500 other people show up, I've got a 1 in 10 chance of winning. Good enough.

So, we wait for it to be that week of September. And I went to the sci-fi convention. I think it most have been a Stellar Occasions, but maybe not. Maybe it was Uncommon Con. I'm not sure, and it's been a while. Anyway, I went to the convention and had a bit of fun. There was a guy in that costume contest who went as the Death Star.

Now that is an interesting costume. He's all dressed in black, and he has this big Death Star on his head. Little Micro-Machine spaceships are sewn onto the costume, mostly on his hands and arms. The Rebel fighters are on one hand, and the Empire ships are on the other hand, so that he can simulate a space battle by waving his hands in front of his face.

So the day after the convention, when I should be looking over my own costume and making last minute adjustments, my husband has the brilliant idea that if he also enters the contest that we will improve our odds of winning. 1 to 5 is better than 1 to 10, don't you think? Well, that's great, except that the contest is the next day and you don't have a costume. Never mind, we'll go to some costume shops and look around.

So we go to a costume shop, but nothing speaks to him. So we get back in the car and I ask him where he wants to go next.

Now he's decided that he wants to be Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.That's another character that he could use his fake British accent on. Only this particular character doesn't wear a coat and a scarf, he wears pajamas and a bathrobe and slippers.

My husband sleeps in the nude, and owns none of these items. Still, they are easy enough to find, and we were able to get most of his costume at a Goodwill. To finish the look we also bought a matching towel, a newspaper, and a fish-shaped eraser (a babelfish).

So I get up early on that Tuesday, the day of the Ride the Rocket contest. We have to go to Dallas and get a parking space and all of that. We get there about twenty minutes later than I had planned, only to hear--"Why are you here this early? The contest doesn't start four three more hours." So we explained that we were just trying to make sure we were in the first 500. "Not to worry, we've had this contest before, and we've never had more than 300."

Great. Now our chances will be more like 1 in 3.

We went to look around at the British Airways stuff. My husband and I used to watch reruns of old British comedies and we like a lot of British things. So after the co-pilot and flight attendant got through saying all the stuff that they were supposed to say, we all stood around and talked about British TV and stuff like that. They complimented my costume and asked my husband who he was supposed to be. My husband said Arthur Dent from Hitchhiker's Guide, and they of course got it immediately, and he joked around a bit about the end of the world coming and all of that in his fake British accent, and they thought he was very funny. Unfortunately, they were there to tell people about British Airways and were not the judges.

The co-pilot proceeded to tell us a funny story. The British people of course speak English, but there are a few words that they use commonly that we don't, and there are a few words that we use commonly that they don't, and there are a few words that we both use but mean totally different things depending on what side of the ocean you happen to be on. So about twenty-five years ago, on the co-pilot's second trip to America, he's writing something and decides he needs an eraser. So he goes into a store that looks like it sells stationary and such, but he doesn't see what he needs right away, so he asks the girl at the cash register for some rubbers. That is what they call erasers. But of course, the girl at the cash register doesn't know this and assumes that the man is asking her for some condoms, which they don't sell at that store. And since it wasn't a drug store or someplace where a person would normally buy condoms, the girl was a bit uncomfortable talking to a man who'd just asked her for rubbers. So she told him that they did not sell that sort of thing and tried to help the next costumer. And the co-pilot has no idea why he's being dismissed like that, and tries again to find the erasers on his own, but he doesn't see them, so he asked again for the rubbers. Now the girl is getting upset, tells the co-pilot that they don't sell that sort of thing here, and if he doesn't leave she's going to get the manager. And he says she'd better go and get the manager cause he's not going to be treated this way anymore. And the manager comes and hears the story and tells the co-pilot that they don't sell rubbers at that store and if he didn't stop harassing the employees the police would be called. And the co-pilot got very angry and started yelling that if one could not buy rubbers at a store that sold stationary then where was a person supposed to buy them. At some point the pencil with the worn at eraser came into the conversion, and the manager figured out what the co-pilot wanted, and they all had a good laugh about it.

So that was all a lot of fun. But we still had about two and a half hours to kill. We wondered around a bit, but didn't find much to do. There were a lot of restaurants around, so I think that we went in somewhere and got a soda, but that was about it.

Well, it was September, in Texas, and it did start to warm up. Now, while the borg costume does somewhat give the appearance of me running about in my underwear, I am in fact, totally covered. I am so completely covered that the only bare skin showing is in fact my face. And in some places, the costume has three layers of fabric, and that is before the plastic and metal parts are put on. So I did start to worry about getting too warm. The nice flight attendant and co-pilot said I should stay inside with them for a while.

I believe there ended up being just over two hundred and fifty people in costume. But it was better to get there three hours early for no reason, than to get there too late or be told that they weren't going to see any more people.

There were some interesting costumes that I would not have thought of. We were instructed to come as a favorite space traveler, and my mind automatically went to aliens and science fiction. Other people had different ideas. A few guys came as astronauts, cosmonauts, and test pilots. A father and son team came wrapped in aluminum foil and had paper plates and other things taped to their clothes. The dad was Sput and his son was Nick. They were Sputnik. I thought it was cute.

Some people came as dumb things that they made up. A couple of ladies spray painted a lot of things silver and gold, and they said that they were from Planet Mom. Okay, but their costumes weren't much better than the Sputnik team, and the idea wasn't as cute. And they didn't have a story about Planet Mom. You can be from Planet Mom, but you should have a back story in case someone asks, and you should have a few jokes ready. But they didn't. They just kept saying they were from Planet Mom and thought that was funny. It wasn't.

The really cool costume that I would not have thought of was Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. This lady had sewn most of a costume that looked like the plant, and then she had cut out the bottom of one of those green 20 gallon tubs that you put ice and sodas in. So she looked like she was walking around in a giant flower pot. I so wish I had a picture of that one.

There was something I don't know how to describe. He was on very tall stilts. Sort of a giant robot mouse.

Someone from the club showed up as Seven of Nine. Now, the girl had Seven's waist, but she needed some fake boobs or something. And of course the girl smiles too much to look like Seven, even if you knew who she was supposed to be in the grey spandex.

Someone else from the club went as a Vulcan, complete with very well done latex ears.

Another club person came as Marvin the Martian. That woman I know has much better costumes, but they involve to much prep time, and she had to go back to work after lunch.

There were a lot of people wearing whatever they planned to wear for Halloween. Other people made up stuff that didn't look too bad. But I was surprised how many just regular people there were compared to club and convention people.

But there were a few convention people. A couple of the local Klingons showed up. The DeathStar guy was there. Some really good looking Star Wars people showed up. I think that they might have been from Squadron 501, or whatever it's called.

So we finally get started with the contest, and we get numbers and line up. Now, we were practically the first ones there, but it was almost three hours before we were able to do anything like sign in. So we got numbers thirty or forty something. So we were in line for a while, but not too long.

The judges were from some local country and western radio station, and they did not have a clue.

They were nice. If you had something to say, they tried to play along. If you didn't have anything to say, they tried to help. But for the most part, they didn't seem to know who anyone was supposed to be, unless it was just really obvious. Marvin they got, which was good because two of them showed up. I think Sputnik had to be explained to them. I'm not sure that they got what I was supposed to be or not, but they did seem to like me and went along. My husband, they did not get, which was too bad because his little act was very good.

We waved at some TV cameras. We were on the news. Cool. Wish someone had thought to tape it.

It took a while to get through all two hundred fifty something people. We went to talk to some of the club and convention people while we waited.

Then they started calling out names of the winners. We were not too surprised to hear my name called, but we were very happy. The Klingon won, the DeathStar won, both Marvins won, the Little Shop of Horrors plant won, and the guy on stilts won. And I guess someone explained Sputnik to them, cause they also won. I think that astronaut and test pilot guys won.

We were surprised by a few that did not win. Seven of Nine did not win. The Vulcan did not win. I guess maybe they were too subtle. But the real surprise was that the Star Wars people did not win anything. Someone said that the judges didn't like them for buying or renting professional costumes, and may even have been disqualified. But I am pretty sure that at least one of those costumes was made by someone in the 501, so that really sucks.

But the real surprise came when my husband's name was called. We were sure that the judges didn't have a clue. How did he win?Turns out that the British Airways people had a talk with them. So he got unofficial votes from the flight attendant and co-pilot. So the judges said, okay, and gave him a pair of tickets.