"Orange Mike" Lowrey Hasn't Missed A Chattacon In 50 Years, And He's Coming This Weekend

Time to free your mind, Chattanooga - along with "Orange Mike" Lowrey, who hasn't missed a Chattacon in half a century.

You can find the answers to all of your "What if" queries this coming holiday weekend.

Chattacon, an annual science fiction convention, will be held at the DoubleTree Hilton in Downtown Chattanooga from Friday through Sunday (Martin Luther King Weekend.)

“Chattacon matters because it is in the old tradition of a fan run, not-for-profit, science fiction convention for people who actually read the stuff,” says Chattacon historian and panel speaker Lowrey.

“It is not a commercial operation, like the bloated gigantic Dragon-Con. It (Chattacon) is still run by fans. If there are excess funds, they (Chattacon) donate to local charities and it is a place for people in that part of the South to gather and talk about science fiction, whether they're professional writers or 12-year-old kids or retirees.

"Anybody who cares about science fiction can get together and talk about the stuff, and nobody's going to check your credentials at the door. And the prices are deliberately set as low as possible so that as many people as possible can attend. It is multi-age. It is multi-cultural and it's a heck of a lot of fun.”

Chattacon is celebrating its 50^th edition, and, having been to all 49 before, Mr. Lowrey has witnessed the evolution of the convention since its inception. Founded by Chattanooga resident Irv Koch, Chattacon held its first event in January 1976 at the East Ridge Sheraton. It was a fanfare that drew just a crowd of 81 people.

Since then, Chattacon has had a 15-fold increase in attendance.

“The average person at the science fiction convention definitely has a higher-than-average IQ, regardless of their educational qualifications,” Mr. Lowrey, 71, of Milwaukee, said. “They may not be traditional. You're not going to find a lot of people with PhDs from Harvard at your average science fiction convention. You may find some especially up in the Northeastern corridor (of the convention), but the average person at a science fiction convention is an engineer or a mathematician. Or an astronomer or a high-level government administrator. To some extent it's been suggested, and I think there's some truth to it, that (science fiction) culture does tend to include a lot of people that are at least on the Asperger's level of the spectrum.”

Even though he enjoys science fiction, Orange Mike is a real-life character due to his size and personality. The thickly bearded man, dressed in blaze-orange, is a lively presence not just at Chattacon but in his community too. This is how he came to be known as "Orange Mike." Following his appearance at Chattacon sporting an orange hat in the 70s, Mr. Lowrey "copyrighted" his signature style.

“I was at an outlet store in Nashville in 1977,” Mr. Lowrey recalled. “I saw a pair of orange patent leather loafers and I thought, ‘These would go great with my hat.’ They just glowed across the room radioactively.”

But his infatuation with orange clothing didn’t stop there. He also owns more than 60 pairs of underwear in the same color.

"I lucked out,” Mr. Lowrey said. “I found them at a thrift store that was given a donation from a company that makes underwear for prisons. I got them for a dollar apiece.”

And although Orange Mike’s carrot-colored clothing makes him easy to spot, he doesn't want it to be the only thing that defines him. He's also a husband (he met his wife at a science fiction convention (and married her at one), a father, a state employee (Wisconsin Department of Children and Families), a feminist, an avid reader, a writer, a gamer and a Wikipedia admin. Mr. Lowrey was also the son of a journalist. His father wrote for the Jackson Sun, the Daily Corinthian, and the Anniston Star as well as the Columbus Ledger.

“I have testified in front of the state legislature, negotiated union contracts...I was also a delegate to the Democratic National Convention,” Mr. Lowrey said.

He hopes to see many of his old pals again at Chattacon. He is excited to celebrate the community's enduring spirit, chat with both new and established authors and pick up some more books to take home to his family.

“Science fiction always begins with the big what if?,” Mr. Lowrey said. “What if this? What if that? And goes on from there. And it gives so much more play for speculation for thought, for contemplation. What if?”

Finally, why does Mr. Lowrey continue to return to Chattacon? What keeps him interested and enthusiastic about it?

“It is always a delight to be reminded that there are brains out there and some of those brains are going to change the world,” Mr. Lowrey said. “You can ask somebody like Stephen Colbert, there are people out there who are working at MIT and at NASA and at the Vatican, whose minds were shaped by science fiction and by science fiction conventions. I am proud to be part of that community.”

The Chattacon web page notes: “Orange Mike” Lowrey, a West Tennessean originally part of Nashville fandom but living in Milwaukee, is the only surviving person who has attended every single Chattacon. He married Iowa fan Cicatrice at a con in Milwaukee in 1981, and they have a fanspring Kelly, a/k/a Ink or Pytress; both have attended past Chattas. Mike has been a writer of book reviews, game reviews, and RPG articles since the 1980s. He was the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF) delegate to Europe in 2020, although his actual trip had to wait until 2022, when he visited fandoms in Luxembourg, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, England and Scotland."