The 1985 Jugglers Anonymous Festival (formerly St. Fred's) enjoyed some of the best weather ever. More than 50 jugglers plus families, friends and learners made for an active regional convention.

Highlights were: Tom Miller (Kokomo) and his van load of amazing unicycle devices, some of which don't even have official names yet. Tom rode his tall, very tal!, and "watch-out-for-the-power-line" unicycles, as well as his "cross-country ski-wheel," a pedal-less wheel with foot platforms requiring the rider to use poles for propulsion. Also wheeling around were Sem Abrahams on his superb one­wheelers, Anita Harris (star of the Peru Circus) and her fiancee, Phil.

Bob Whitcomb performed for TV cameras with a chainsaw, bowling ball and third object, and Bruce Block recreated his huge cigar box stack illustrated in the last issue of "Juggler's World." Joel Heidtman, a 16-year-old from Westerville, Ohio, showed a lot of promise performing just about every kind of stunt in the book while Fort Wayne's answer to Anthony Gatto, 13-year-old Steve Loeffler, worked on five clubs and seven balls.

Al Eisenhour, Bob Rice, Larry Thompson and Theresa Thompson did a hilarious "Brunn Family" juggling skit for the public show. Jeff Hamilton, a new draftee into the Knightstown Juggling Army, was seen "chasing" fire-eating fuel with soda pop. "I gotta find something that burns bright that doesn't taste so awful," he said as he gargled with Doctor Pepper.

Tom Rotering and Loeffler performed their multiple-steal-and-replacement routine on rola-bolas. Rotering challenges others to match his feat of jumping up on the rola-bola, turning a half-pirouette and landing back on it balanced!

Scott Morey dropped in from Harrow, Ontario. Lyle Baker did a great workshop on cigar box tricks. Michael Ferguson from Ann Arbor would like to know how many more IJA members are ham radio operators. He is N8MF. Others at the fest were Dave Parnin (festival coordinator, N9ERL), Bob Waugh 'N9FM' and Charlie Willer 'WB9ULN'. Much of the festival coordination was aided by ham radio... a lunch break at a nearby fast-food place was aborted in favor of doing a free show for a school bus of kids who dropped by to wait for the nearby natural history museum to open. Jugglers at the restaurant were recalled to the festival site via ham radio.