My wife and daughter met Ed McMahon and his wife at Disney World when a sudden shower caused them to take shelter under an awning......................
Meeting Carl Albert.
Mr Albert was Speaker of the House for many years back in the sixties. He was also an alumni of my fraternity. He came to University of Oklahoma to speak.
I was in the upstairs bathroom sitting on the toilet when the door opened (one of those old fashioned open bay bathrooms) and in walked Speaker Albert.
He immediately demonstrated why he was a superb politician. He walked up to me and stuck out his hand. He said: “If your embarrassed by this, I want you to know that of all the people I’ve met tonight, you’re the one I’ll remember.”
Being a Pittsburgh kid I was raised on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. That was on our television set almost every day when I was a tot. As a young adult I met Don Brockett, the actor who played Chef Brockett on the show all those years, and who also appeared in many films shot here, like Flashdance and Silence of the Lambs.
I held out my hand and said “You’re Don Brockett! Nice to meet you!”
He responded “Hi, nice to meet you too!”
Then he looked up at the gray, drizzly November Pittsburgh sky and exclaimed, “Shitty day, ain’t it? HA HA HA HA HAR HAR!!”
Sort of blew the whole vision I had of him as this kindly chef from my early childhood.
The man walked with an absolutely horrible limp, which they managed to disguise in his movie and TV appearances.
A friend was walking the halls of the Pentagon when Don Rumsfeld, SecDef, came out of a doorway. The two were walking side-by-side. They exchanged greetings.
My friend said that now he can begin all his briefings by saying “When I spoke with Donald Rumsfeld in the Pentagon....”
No stories about meeting notable people.
But I sure do miss Tony Snow still. Sunday mornings just aren’t the same.
I “almost” shook Lyndon Johnsons hand.
It was 1967 and I was 9 years old. Dad worked at Walter Reed and while I was there one day LBJ made an appearance.
There was a large crowd and LBJ in his typical fashion was glad-handing the crowd as he made his way inside.
I too stuck out my hand, but nope. He couldn’t shake every hand, and so he didn’t shake mine.
If I knew then what I know now about LBJ - I wouldn’t have offered my hand, but instead a finger.
(lol)
for later
Also got to meet Tab Hunter; he was a friend of my former boss' and came over to her house one day when I was there. :-)
When I lived in Brooklyn 15 years ago or so, I had several handyperson items I needed to pick up at my favorite Mom & Pop hardware store. There I was, my arms full of caulking, electrical supplies, maybe even a piece of moulding, ready to get into the checkout line when Anthony Weiner came over to get into line. He looked at my arms full of various fixit supplies and chuckled. “You’re quite the handyperson, aren’t you?” he commented. I nodded my assent. This was years before he married, and years before he went off the deep end with his sexting.
There were only 4 of us and two tall guys dressed in black leather coats waiting in the baggage claim area. So I start walking around the area. As I'm heading back to my group, I see Mike standing between the two guys with their arms around his shoulders and Tim's wife taking a picture of them. After the pictures, the two guys grab their bags and take off.
So I asked Mike what the heck that was all about. It turns out those two guys were Detroit Red Wings Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Fedorov who were heading to the 2001 NHL All Star game in Denver.......
When I was a child, we went to the Ionia Fair in central Michigan. My grandfather saw George Romney in passing, walked right up to him and shook his hand, said, “Hi, George!”. I believe he was governor of Michigan at that time, and running for POTUS.
But the real notable people in my life have been my husband and our 3 sons (2 his, one mine), all of whom served in the United States Marine Corps. The boys did multiple deployments to Iraq, and all 3 were at Fallujah on 11/8/2004. One has a Purple Heart. And my daughter’s serious boyfriend, who served in the Army Reserves with Afghanistan deployments, and who continues to serve overseas (employed by a contractor), in the War on Terror.
I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of SoHo in the rain
Buffalo Bob Smith lived a couple of blocks behind the Radio Shack I managed. Came in often. Very nice, friendly guy.
Peter Frampton would come in and buy audio cables. Always looked old and abused.
Steve Majors came in once with Farah Fawcett. She walked over to the stereos, squealed that she loved this song, and cranked the volume.
When I worked as an aide to a Congresscritter I got to meet Dick Gephardt (jerk) and Claude Pepper (very nice).
My folks and I were eating at a restaurant on Miami Beach when I was about 6. They noticed two men seated a couple of tables over and started whispering among themselves. Finally Dad motioned me over, handed me the paper kids menu and told me to go over to the table and say...
“Mr. DiMaggio, Mr. Ford, could I have your autographs?”
In the US Army, 1990’s, I was chaperoning a couple of Army powerlifters to a meet in Las Vegas. While in the waiting area Hulk Hogan strode up to the 1st class line and was waiting around like all of us. Several people asked for autographs but he, very respectfully and kindly, declined. he said it would start growing until the number of people asking became unmanageable.
While in line to board, one of the lifters was behind Hogan. Hogan was, LITERALLY, larger in every direction than this guy. I could see Hogan totally eclipse this powerlifter. The Sgt turned to me, looked at Hogan’s arms and then his own, and soto whispered that all the work he had been doing for so many years was totally worthless.
But Hulk Hogan was really nice to everybody.
I rode on an airplane with Adam West.
I saw Sinbad at 5:30am in LAX eating a jelly donut. He said “‘sup” to me.
I saw Charo at the airport in Boise
Coochie coochie!
Lol!
2. I got thrown out of a hockey rink by legendary "Miracle on Ice" coach Herb Brooks. Long story. LOL.
There can't be more than a handful of people who have done both!
I took my cub scout son to meet William F Buckley at his final book tour in Hartford CT.
During Q&A I asked Mr. Buckley if he had any thoughts as to why CT voted in all of their Democrat incumbents contrary to the nation’s GOP sweep election trend.
He thought for a moment, and replied, “As a CT resident of many years, I’ve come to the conclusion that this state is politically retarded”.
I still treasure the photo of my young son in his cub scout uniform shaking Mr. Buckley’s hand.
A healthy counterpoint to the infamous photo of young Bill Clinton shaking JFK’s hand.
Wish I had personally met President Reagan, his wife, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, and Phyllis Schaffly before they passed away.
And I miss FReepers Tony Snow and Barbara Olsen, too...
I have introduced myself to Billy Joel and Jimmy Buffett. Hung out with Tony Kaye (original Yes keyboardist) and Chris Hitchens at an event.
I sat next to Joey Hackett in 6th grade. He went on to play in the NFL.