The Super Secret Surprise Photon Reunion

11 minutes ago
3 min read

Have you ever had an opportunity to celebrate a person or experience that has truly changed the direction of your life? I was recently invited to attend something absolutely surreal…a “Super Secret Surprise” party for Lord Beathan/reunion gathering of some of the original Dallas Photon players. This was absolutely like being welcomed into the family. Turns out I have become an honorary Dallas player! ;)

A group of us gathered in advance to set up the party before carpooling over to Lord Beathan’s house for a birthday surprise!

https://youtu.be/-dQMFbHEh68?is=XI5SwEKdEPatEajP

I do believe the weeks of keeping this under wraps did make for a SUPER secret surprise for the man who is truly one of the legends of the very first Photon center in Dallas. Speaking of the center, I actually detoured over to the “mothership” for a quick moment before the party.

What a night of stories, nostalgia and friendships that go back 40 years to the earliest days of Photon! As these people have shared so much with me, I wanted to bring something to share with them as well. A few months back George Carter very generously sent me a number of his original Photon photo albums, so I used this as an opportunity to scan those originals and assemble a new album to give to Lord Beathan and Hope. This photo album has lots of photos of the people gathering here and everyone enjoyed reminiscing about the place and experiences that brought this family together. Check it out!

https://youtu.be/zOpSjkZrjlI?is=CepwjK_3IgiOTYUK

I felt a little like a time-traveler, as I was a kid on the other side of the country when all these pics were originally taken. I gave a USB with all the images to Eric Kimminau to share on the Photon social media groups, as these pictures really belong to the Photon community.

During the event there were many special moments. One was the dubbing of Recon (aka author Brian Martin to celebrate his novel, The Queen Among Kings).

https://youtu.be/y9goJ5tWqi4?is=u-Xz19Ea1q9vYvA2

I was delighted to take home an autographed copy.

What a nice souvenir from a man who carved out his own piece of Photon history as both a player and is widely considered to be the inspiration for the character Leon on the television series.

We all enjoyed some food. It’s a laser tag party, so of course I baked some cookies. Instead of phaser shapes, these cookies were Photon helmets. :)

And we had party favors including Photon stickers, klinks and tack pins.

And Jim Strother (aka Opus) brought something really cool…working Photon pods!

When I heard about this I knew I wanted to check off a bucket list item and actually play some Photon with Lord Beathan.

Pre-game coaching from Hope!

Thank you, Jim for making THIS possible!

https://youtu.be/2hHF-0JR8Wc?is=-_XnClFNGIlrob90

This is quite a Photon memory! And yes, of course he won! ;)

As wonderful as this night was, one very important piece was missing from this party. Jet, who had spearheaded the organizing of this event with Hope for the last two months fell ill at the last moment and was unable to attend. However, she is in our hearts and everyone wanted to thank her for making this reunion possible.

https://youtu.be/8HwBzypUz_0?is=iYYr08yxR-qRIq0T

Thank you to Jet and Hope for organizing this event. Everyone had such a great time reminiscing and sharing time with each other. Most of these friendships go back 40 years!

This trip has been epic beyond measure. There is nowhere I would have rather been on this night than at this reunion with some of the players who were there at Photon from the very beginning. You all made history and Photon paved the way for the laser tag industry so many people continue to enjoy today! In fact, after the party a couple of us went out to play some laser tag, just for good measure, down the road at Celebration Station.