Famous/Important/Celebrated People I have met:
1. Pope Paul VI - papal audience — he was short.
2. Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, Rosie Grier, Merlin Olsen, Roman Gabriel (I cleaned their rooms during training camp at my college and got to vist with them).
3. Pamela Sue Martin - in her post “Dallas” days.
4. Sam Anderson who went on to play in the tv series the “Cape”.
5. George Lindsay - Goober Pyle.
6. Ramona Ward - Jay Ward’s wife and life time president of th eRocky & Bullwinkle fan club — she’s a hoot herself.
7. Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia in 1966 at a special greeting ceremony.
8. George Takei - Mr Sulu - at a book signing.
9. Senator Christopher Bond - Fourth of July parade.
10. Former St Louis Mayor Vincent Schoemehl - special ceremony for my wife and her organization.
11. Via e-mail correspondence, the late Gregory Freeman — I have kept his responses. He was a good man.

Of course none of these can touch my wife, daughters and grandchildren, and that is how it should be.

Mazel Tov, Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, Blessed Kwanzaa, etc.

johnh-Your “fishing buddy for years”, Norm Mineta, was Sect’y of Commerce under Clinton and Sect’y of Transportation under Bush. At least you spelled his name right this time.

I had several. I once had the opportunity to moon Jane Fonda back in college. She was very rude and deserved it. I also ran into Barbra Steisand in a store in NYC. I turned the corner and she looked at me with that, “okay, let’s get it over with look,”. Rather than giving her the pleasure, I asked her if she could tell me the location of the restroom. Bill Clinton used to come to my parties, but that was before he was famous, so I guess that doesn’t count.

Oh, I forgot a good one. A couple of years ago Brewer and Shipley played at an outdoors venue for about 400 people on the Upper Meramec river. “Back in the Day” (when I was barely out of high school, and socially pretty unconscious) their band did something called The Meramec Dam Song, which was an eco-friendly anti-dam song. Tom Shipley is a pretty laid back guy; we asked if they could play that song for this event. He said, “We haven’t played that in quite a while– don’t know if I remember it.” So I cut him a digital copy onto a CD-R from an on-air recording I kept on my computer on site. I have no idea how many copyright and royalty laws were broken in the cutting of the CD, but he didn’t seem to mind.

also met Burton Cummings of the Guess Who in a bar after a concert. They were looking for a party and we put a few people together and partied till about 5 in the morning.They were all very nice. I was standing in a line to get into the old Granary in Edwardsville back in the early 70’s and the guy behind was Alan Ameche, the football star. He asked if I knew someplace where we could get in and I took him to Vanzo’s and we stayed till 5 am. I once walked into the wrong door in Chicago and found myself standing next to Dan Qauyle who was giving a speech. I’ve shaken hands with two extremes Jimmy Carter and W. I met Paul Powell the notorious Illinois Secretary of shoeboxes, Adlai Stevenson, J. William Fulbrigt, Wilbur Mills, Met Jose Feleciano, was picked up by a very famous female singer who at the time was an opening act (sorry, can’t kiss and tell, but if you were around in the 80’s you would know a lot of her songs). I met Sam Walton and Col. Sanders in the same week. A friend and I were in MInneapolis once and Fritz Mondale was across the street. He asked if I wanted to meet him. I said no, it was all the way on the other side of the street, after all.

President George H.W. Bush spoke to me and a small group of sailors during his visit aboard our ship in Malta. He was warm and thankful for the efforts we put in to accomodate his visit which was nice. A stood just a few feet from Ken Griffy Jr at the casino I worked at when he was still with Seattle. I got an autograph from Miss Coco Peru, a fairly popular drag queen/entertainer who was aboard a cruise ship I was on. I have met and spoken with singer David Allen Cole mulitple times.

Phil Donahue
Marlo Thomas
Pearl Jam
Lou Rawls
Jimmy Jam Harris
Bucky Bush…

…when I drove limousines, celebrities were ‘all in a days work’…

Except Mary J. Blige, who was bar none the most obnoxious person I’ve ever met in my life.

I would think the celebrity with the biggest brush would be Don King. Ooops! I read the headline wrong. Sorry. My biggest brush with a celebrity would probably be with Dennis Miller, whom I interviewed as he signed autographs near the milk aisle in a Cape Girardeau grocery store. He was there to promote a new video he’d released that the store was carrying in its video department.

I forgot. I also interviewed singer Jeannie C. Riley (of the song `Harper Valley PTA’ fame), guitarist Steve Morse and Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer. I also began interviewing musician Dan Seals, but I said something that pissed him off and he cut off the interview.

Also forgot I interviewed pool hustler/pitchman Minnesota Fats (Rudolph Wanderone). I remember asking what drove him to become so good at pocket billiards. He responded that he worked one summer with his father, whom I recall as being a bricklayer. After that, he said, he decided he didn’t want to work for a living.