Posted on 10/09/2022 4:56:18 AM PDT by sodpoodle
In 1953, Queen Elizabeth drove around and waved to crowds of school kids lining the streets.
I attended that school with Maggie Thatcher’s Secretary of Education- Gil Watts.
1963. Worked for Jim Brown, mayor of Tybee Island, Ga
1965 Worked with John Rousakis in Savannah. GA - in insurance - he became mayor of Savannah, Ga.
2012 Johns Hopkins - my physician’s and Ben Carson’s reception areas were adjoined.
Tony Snow was being treated in the DC physician’s office where I worked.
Atty.Gen. William Sessions and I, nearly got hit by a car while jay-walking in DC.
Father of the Metro = Carlton Sickles. gave me his 38 year service pin when a colleague told him I used the Metro every day.
I made a phone call to The Washington Times and Wesley Pruden answered it - we chatted a while - nice man.
2003. Worked with Patrick Hope, now a Dem rep. for Virginia.
Flew on a plane with Cal Ripken.
Saw Gerald Ford up close.
Saw Billy Idol up close at a local TV station - he was sweet.
We all share the oxygen with people who are alive NOW - Enjoy those moments!!
Saw Dash Crofts often when a kid visiting in Cisco Texas where my cousin was friend of Dash
I went to a rally with Bush and Chaney. I sat very close to them on a bleacher. Lakeland airport. As I looked into the crowd, I realized how vulnerable they were. I made a decision that if there was an attempt on their life I would step in front if them. Yeah. That.
Btw. I been fighting the battle on Twitter trying to get out the truth and I woke up to Travis Tritt liking my retweet. Blue check and all. I know. I know. But it was a pleasant Sunday morning surprise.
What’s the name of the keyboardist on the right?
Was close to President Regain during a campaign speech, and George W while he was being interviewed during his first run for POTUS. But today is football Sunday so I’ll say shaking hands with O.J. Simpson in Orchard Park at Salfranco’s before a home game was pretty cool. It was before the dual homocide thing...
I saw God in a flash of sunlight, and he smiled at me (seriously)
I had a great metaphysical/spiritual talk with Roy Harper in a bar, but we constantly being interrupted by people who wanted to know What is Jimmy Page really like.
Met The Stranglers in a bar and was impressed with the number and size of rings they wore on their fingers.
I met Eugène Levy walking down the street in Yorkville and was tempted to say “How are you!” with my Bobby Bitman voice but I chickened out.
I attended a talk with Alan Bloom and asked him a question about his chapter in “The Closing of the American Mind” on rock music and students. I can’t remember the question now but his answer had something to do with smoking cigarettes as a substitute for sex in the 50s.
I asked a Northrup Fry a question at a Literature seminar at U of T and the event was recorded for posterity... but my question now seems inane. Something to do with subways.
Met Jordan Peterson at an event, and I was whispering my question to him about his neo Darwinian stance (which I object to) as we were being photographed. He gave me a weird, second-take look as I was leaving with my wife.
I met Richie Kotzen at a guitar camp in the Catskills of NY and was impressed with his playing. However, I warned him to avoid the messing with the Satanic puppets that were showing up in his videos. During the evening show he stopped at one point to say to the crowd that he was not a Satanist.
I met David Cousin from the band The Strawbs. My youthful impression of him was destroyed. I was very disappointed. Meeting your youthful heroes can take a turn for the worse.
Going from memory here:
The original Wonderama was hosted by Sonny Fox. He would end the show with a big “Simon Says” contest. Later it was hosted by Bob McAllister, who played all kinds of characters (Professor Supertweedypooper comes to mind) and sing songs like “Kids Are People, Too”.
We had Captain Kangaroo in the early morning. Captain Jack McCarthy (Popeye cartoons) in the early afternoon. Claude Kirschner as the ringmaster. Beachcomber Bill. Soupy Sales. Winchell Mahoney. Paul Tripp’s Birthday House.
My personal fave was Sandy Becker. Played all kinds of characters - especially “Hambone” where he’d play the song, dance and place funny sayings on the magnetic board.
All back when there were only about 5 TV channels (and Zacherly on UHF!)
Did you know that the character "Buffalo Bill" in "Silence Of The Lambs" was,in fact,modeled after several real serial killers? In one scene he was shown pretending to have a broken arm and asking a young woman for help carrying something. That's exactly what Ted Bundy used to do.
I went to our local airport once to see John Wayne and Ann Margret.
*********
Yep I looked up into the sky and saw a plane flying. But
couldn’t figure out who the personality on board was. Such
is life.....
Met Admiral John Bulkeley at an INSURV debrief on a Cruiser in San Diego. He evacuated Gen MacArthur from the PI when he was a LT, among many things. Could tell his staff adored him. Amazing life.
Years later, a few blocks away in Cambridge I passed Cornel West crossing the street. I said "Hi" to all of them and they waved back. I have a couple of other celebrity encounters but I'll save them for another day
I'll give it a try. The older sister of my girlfriend volunteered at the suicide clinic where Ted was prowling and I met him briefly on one occasion.
When I was in high school I met Eddie Stokes. He was a chronic loser who worked overtime trying to be somebody's - anybodies friend. His dad owned a prominent funeral home in town and Eddie frequently invited kids to sleepovers where it was implied that tours of the facility - complete with cadavers - would be in the offing. I was offered the "opportunity" but passed. It turns out the the focus of his entire existence was seducing and molesting boys.
As a surprise to no one, Eddie turned out to be a serial child molester with over 200 victims. The intarbewz are getting increasingly difficult to find stuff on, but I did locate a reference to a news article here: http://www.auxbeacon.org/civil-air-patrol-networking-reveals-older-pedophile-case/
Years later I took a job as an assembly mechanic for a truck manufacturer. I wasn't there but a couple of years when I started hearing the rumors circulating about the guy who was suspected of murdering people. It wasn't long before I rubbed shoulders with Gary Ridgeway. I was admittedly just as curious as any to him for myself.
He worked in the paint shop and I worked on the assembly line and circumstances often had us doing hand-off of work. Gary knew that he was under constant scrutiny but there was a part of him that was attracted to taking risks (I guess me too!). I wouldn't exactly say that I befriended him but I will say that I visited his home for a BBQ and met his wife. Of course that was before he was convicted of murdering 49 girls as "The Green River Murderer".
So, how did I do? ;'}
I met and had a short conversation with Alf Landon. I spoke many times with Governor Bob Bennet of Kansas . I met and assisted Mikhail Gorbachev and his daughter. I have met and sat at lunch with Bill Self and earlier Roy Williams. I knew Jo Jo White(Celtics) in college and John Zook (Falcons) was my next door neighbor and sometime bridge partner in college.
...oh, and one time at Band Camp....
Too many to name here
Governor Reagan
I would love to have sat and had a cigar with Rush
It's a good thing you weren't Bundy's type...otherwise your life could have taken a nasty turn!
So the following morning we met with Colonel York and it was over an operational issue the Colonel wanted to work out with the military police and we were glad to accommodate. As we were wrapping up, the colonel opened his wallet up to give us his business card, and I noticed he had a Tennessee Driver's license. Knowing Alvin York was from Tennessee, I couldn't help myself and asked, "Hey sir, you wouldn't happen to be related to Alvin York?" My major cringed at my impertinence, but the Colonel just smiled and said, "Yep. I'm his grandson."
After I returned stateside, the History Channel had a brief series, "Tales of the Gun." One episode was on the guns of WWI and recounted the story of Alvin York. Sure enough, they interviewed the same Colonel York I had sat with in that office in Korea a year or two earlier.
Another brush with fame I had was about 10 years before that. I was in college and dating a gal whose mom had gone to high school with, and was good friends with Mercedes Ruehl who had just made it big with, "Married to the Mob." She had dropped by to visit my GF's mom and I got to have dinner with her.
Oh. I forgot one of my best ones. I used get a car pool ride to school from Florence Gooding. One day, she her husband picked me up instead, saying Mrs. Gooding was ill. She showed up months later on “America’s Most Wanted” for taking deposits on houses as a realtor, and then setting them on fire to buy time. She was also racially ambiguous and always used it to her advantage (black, American Indian, Hispanic). Very sociable, though, but told tall tales even to me (10th grader).
I’ve personally gotten autographs on photos I have taken and printed from
Brian Ferry, Roxy Music
Alice Cooper
Steve Walsh, Kansas
Meatloaf
Todd Rundgren
Steve Hackett, Genesis
Bill Bruford, Yes
Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull
Tina Weymouth, Talking Heads
Greg Kihn
Carla Devito, Meatloaf
and, not photographed,
Jim Otto, Oakland Raiders
Willie Davis, Green Bay Packers
and probably more.
In the early 1980s, I worked with Darrell Green's brother-in-law at a software company in Tyson's Corner, Virginia. He brought Darrell by a couple of times to visit. I was a big Redskins fan and had a stack of sports sections from their first Super Bowl winning year (1982), which was the year before Darrell arrived. We spent an hour or so hanging out in my office, chatting about football as he read through the papers.
In early 1985, I was staying at the Kahala Hilton in Waikiki on business with several other young software engineers. We made the acquaintance of Don Merideth, Frank Gifford, and O.J. Simpson, who were there to broadcast the Pro Bowl. We drank gin and tonics and taught them to throw frisbees. At one point I spent a couple of hours sitting on the beach next to Nichole Simpson with O.J. on the other side. They had been married for about a week. She was friendly, if somewhat reserved, but O.J. impressed us as a man with serious problems. I also had a couple of drinks at an otherwise empty beach bar with Rob Lowe.
I met Jack Lemmon and his wife while on my honeymoon in the Galapagos Islands in the early 1990s. We were on a 10-person tour boat and the Lemmons were on its sister boat, which carried twelve passengers. We sat next to them at dinner in Quito and their hotel room was next to ours. Jack was there as the guest of the National Wildlife Federation, which was trying to recruit him as a spokesman. Word filtered back during the cruise from our naturalist guide that the Lemmons and the NWF leaders - who even the guides regarded as eco-fanatics - weren't getting along. At the end of the cruise we were all waiting with a number of locals to board an ancient 727 back to Quito when the NWF brass appeared, ran to the front of the line, and gestured for the Lemmons to join them. Jack didn't move. "We're fine here," he said.
While working with the old Free Republic Network in the early 2000s, I had the opportunity to meet and, in some cases, help interview most of the leading lights of the conservative movement, usually in support of the late Tim Ziegler, who posted here as The Shrew. This included Ann Coulter, Grover Norquist, Mark Levin, Alan Keyes, Michelle Malkin, Oliver North, Paul Weyrich, Morton Blackwell, Bob Barr, and many others.
In 2004, I worked closely with Admiral Roy Hoffmann, John O'Neill, Bill Franke, Jerry Corsi, and a number of other Swift Boat veterans and POWs in support of their successful effort to prevent John Kerry from becoming President.
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