We met at the Bombay Bicycle Club near the Anoka County Library, where I worked, and we each wrote a check for $20. I gave Gretchen a gift membership and he gave Susan a gift membership. He proposed that we invite Amy Dolnick to join us, as she was a PR person and he liked her and we needed a PR person.

Sharla was wonderfully generous. She gave me the names of several local fans, and I knew others, such as Barbara Carter, who loved the books as much as I, and who had found music for many of the songs mentioned in the books.

Our first meeting was at the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota the next month. We were wildly enthusiastic and full of great ideas. We started to plan for that centennial event on April 25, and we split up the work.

Amy, John, and I went for the publicity. We got a listing in Minnesota Monthly, which drew a call from a very nice sounding lady named Louise King. "I am Carney's daughter," she said. "May I come?" I nearly died. Carney's daughter! We were only two degrees of separation from the Crowd!