Oh, wow. A lot of what you say here resonates for me, although I wasn't quite as proto-fannish as you (I mostly hung out in the sf section of Wordsworth, compulsively shelf-reading), but -- if memory serves, I was at NorEascon III too! If you saw someone cosplaying Leela from Doctor Who, that was me. (With a Tom Baker-lookalike boyfriend as the Doctor, except my guy was taller...)