When I was a young teen my goal was to meet famous people. I shook hands with these political figures: President Ford, George Wallace, Henry "Scoop" Jackson, and Eugene McCarthy. In the past three years, I've run into our governor, Jerry Brown, three times, once while out walking our dog one evening. I also said hello to Al Gore. I've met lots of great baseball players years ago. Back in the seventies and eighties, if you hung out for a long time after the game was over at the ballpark, the visiting team would walk out of the tunnel, across some asphalt, and onto their bus. Almost always, they would come over and chat with the patient few who had been waiting and even sign autographs. I've met Tom Seaver, Johnny Bench
, Pete Rose, Catfish Hunter, Nolan Ryan, etc… James "The Heat" Kinchen (former NABF Super Middleweight Champion) and I took our kids to the same pediatrician-- I often ran into him in the waiting room. I danced with Evander Holyfield when he was heavyweight champ. I ran into Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, and Frank Giffford at a Monday Night Football game. I've met Fred Dean, a former Charger and football hall-of-famer. Talked to Wayman Tisdale, former NBA player and jazz bass guitarist, and was intoduced to Billy Casper, one of the best golphers of all time. I said "Hi" to David Sanborn (famous jazz saxophonist… he played the intro to David Bowie's "Young Americans", among other things) in the hall before his concert. Actors I've met include Anne Meara (Ben Stiller's mom), Esther Rolle, (I waited on her at the restaurant I worked at and she was very rude.), Tom Jones (kissed him onstage in Vegas… and it was not the kind you give to Grandma)
, James Marsters ("Spike" from
Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Aaaarnold Schwarzenegger. (I met him when he was The Governator; he was my husband's boss.) There are more that I'm forgetting. I've had really good seats over the years at different events and seen muscians and speakers up close and personal but that doesn't qualify for this thread. My list of celebrity encounters really dates me… I'm now pretty much a home-body!!