The 25th anniversary history was produced in the dawn of digital word processing, as these chapters in pdf here show, and by offset printing. Embellishments came from a number of sources, but from Norman Schatell especially, items he had done for me in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s when I was the scion’s Avenging Angel. On the reverse of the book’s cover is this note: “The cover illustration is adapted from a 1978 Great Alkali Plainsmen dinner program by the late Norman Schatell, BSI, of Cliffside Park, New Jersey. We miss you, Norm!” (We still do.)

I don’t remember how many copies I produced. Certainly not more than 100, and perhaps as few as 50, since it was intended for the members of The Great Alkali Plainsmen themselves, plus a few others. Reading it again today reminds me how much fun I had putting it together, and how much fun those times with the Plainsmen were. I’ve belonged to other scion societies as well — The Red Circle of Washington, D.C., The Hounds of the Baskerville (sic) of Chicago, along with some time in Hugo’s Companions and The Scotland Yarders there, and The Sons of the Copper Beeches in Philadelphia; but for sheer fun and great companionability, The Great Alkali Plainsmen of Greater Kansas City surpassed them all.

Had I not done this in 1988, it would probably not have occurred to me in 1989, after Bliss Austin had died and some of us were worrying about how not to lose the BSI’s history, that I might tackle it myself.

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                                                                                               - Jon L. Lellenberg