Who have you met?

[GalaxyBoy]

I knew Michael Jackson fairly well. We met many times and shared some excellent beers together.

(That's MJ the beer writer, not the singer.)

You know you're a Beer Geek when you think of Michael Jackson the beer writer when you hear that name, and not the pop culture icon!

 

[MRG]

Sat in a meeting with William McNabb(former Vanguard CEO) and watched as he nicely told my boss and our VP to get their act together and come back with a plan. I thought it was funny until the plan suddenly was my responsibility. He was a good guy.

 

[REWahoo]

Who have I met? Many thousands of people over my lifetime. The most memorable were the ones who did something nice for me or my family, or who made me laugh.

 

[CardsFan]

Sat in a meeting with William McNabb(former Vanguard CEO) and watched as he nicely told my boss and our VP to get their act together and come back with a plan. I thought it was funny until the plan suddenly was my responsibility. He was a good guy.

Off Topic:

I can relate to the bolded part above. Once sat in a meeting where the owner of the company got waaaaay off track talking the customer. To the point of being just plain wrong. He then turned to my boss at the time and said "Stan will explain the details to you".

 

[Elbata]

Spent way too many days and nights in airport VIP club rooms; met all kinds of people. Sat next to all kinds on planes as well.

Physically ran into Kareem one day as I was coming around a corner.
Neil Sedaka, Linda Evangelista, Cheech Marin, Rob Lowe, Robert Reich, Neil Diamond, Al Jarreau, Scott Baio, Bo Diddley (funny story), Linda Evans, Howard Cosell, a bunch more I can't remember.

We have a retired well known professional hockey player who lives a few houses up from us.

I'd tell you my Michael Jackson story but nobody would believe it; even DW thinks I made it up.

Marko, come on, you're killing me. Don't leave us hanging

My 3: Evil Knievel, Joe DiMaggio, and my all-time favorite-Efren Reyes, greatest pool player who ever lived (IMO).

 

[pb4uski]

I ran into Dustin Johnson at the Farmer's PGA Touament about 5 years ago... I was rushing back to where we were sitting after going to the restroom and turned a blind corner and just about ran into him (~3' away). I stopped, said sorry and stepped aside and let him pass. As it turns out he had pushed an approach shot near the stands.

When they held the President's Cup in Montreal many years ago Tiger Woods' second shot on a par 5 landed near my feet.... he came along and had us move back a bit and hit a nice pitch shot onto the green.... he was about 10' away from us when he hit the pitch. He was in control of his match and in a good mood... there was a tall guy standing behind me and the shadow from the guy's head was near to Tiger's ball and the guy was moving his head about... Tiger motioned near the shadow and said "Stop that!' playfully and the guy did move.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Marko, come on, you're killing me. Don't leave us hanging

My 3: Evil Knievel, Joe DiMaggio, and my all-time favorite-Efren Reyes, greatest pool player who ever lived (IMO).

Never met him, but saw him shaving naked in the bathroom once. I know I told this story before about the honeymoon suite he shared with Marilyn Monroe.

 

[marko]

Marko, come on, you're killing me. Don't leave us hanging

Ok, ok.

It was like 2AM in a Tokyo hotel lobby. I'd had about 6 hours sleep in the past 3 days. Jet lagged, I went down from my room and was window shopping at a closed store in the lobby when some guy came up in the corner of my eye and was also looking in the window of the store. (Japan hotel stores sell really upscale stuff; $6000 suits, diamonds, watches and such).

I didn't look at the guy right then but he was about 3 feet away from me with another two guys.

Then there was some commotion behind me and I saw a bunch of Japanese girls jumping around and yelling while some security guys kept them 30 feet away.

Finally I looked at the guy next to me and it was....Michael Jackson in a yellow sweater. He looked at me and smiled and I was just beyond shocked to say anything; just nodded. Then someone came and unlocked the store and he went in with two or three other guys and the door was locked behind him.

marko didn't get invited in so he went back to bed. And getting to sleep was now even harder.

 

[imoldernu]

Mods.. pls make this a sticky!

Read this to jeanie this afternoon... took ages, 'cuz we went into hysterics, laughing...

what a great thread... what great people.

Wonderful!!!!!

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

Basketball fans will know these two:
Magic Johnson in 1979. I was at the Great western forum.
Kobe Bryant in 2011. Kobe was actually at my workplace one day.

 

[nativenewenglander]

At a craft fair another vendor setup next to us. He was an older man selling books. He was quite a salesman, he came over an introduced himself Charles Merrill, I bought one of his books. He was the son of the founders of Merrill-Lynch. While living in the same town we were selling one of our houses, I was working in the backyard, a man came around the corner of the barn, I said hello, he said he was Robert Rodat. I looked him up, he was the screenplay writer of the Patriot and Saving Private Ryan. I had been President of our local historical society, one member of the board was retiring, so I went over to his home to give him a gift for all his work over the years, He asked if he remember him talking about his grandson that worked for Google, I said yes. He went on to say he had started his own business it was named Instagram. Kevin Systrom was his grandson. One of my customers was the parents of Debbie Harry (Blondie). I met some famous people, but mostly relatives of them. I sat next to Cindy McCain at a rally one day. Secret Service spoke to me to save a seat for her. She was very nice and quite a pretty woman.

 

[MarieIG]

Driller from Mississippi who cut pulpwood on days off from offshore, and 4 other men who I worked with on that rig as a young "worm" breaking out in the oilfield on that rig..... killed in blowout in 1979 Gulf of Mexico, ODECO Ocean King...
Boy hood friend - decapitated in car wreck right after graduation....
Derrick Man - killed in 1978 when a Relief Valve blew up all over his head....DRT before he hit the ground..... the rest of story.... police knocked on door to tell young widow with kids that her husband was dead and to sign right here.....company $10K policy and release ......true story.......
Drilling Crew killed by H2S in West Texas.....early 80's....
14 year old kid....afew years later about 20 year old....101st Airborne Iraq.... killed in IED ~ one week before going home.....
Relatives going back as far as the Civil War on the Southern side.....WW 1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam.....even though I never met most of them in life, they are with me thru eternity.....
Lots more killed in the oil patch....and many Near Misses that would have been me - but by the Grace of God....

I can say that my life has been impacted by the chancse meetings of people and of family going back years and years.....
Here's to you all..... To my Great Grandfather who fought for the Stars and Bars....and many other kin...., WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam and the Sandbox....

Ms. Gamboolgals father....101st Airborne all the way thru from Toccoa, parachuting into Normandy, A Bridge Too Far, Hell's Highway, Bastogne...... thru the end of WW2, all battles, never wounded, had a pencil and his pack shot off of him, was on Eisenhowers honor guard at Nuremberg....gtook Nazi's to and from there cells to trial and to the Gallows........Mr. Beam had the utmost respect for the German Soldier as they were excellent .....soldiers and killers.....I miss him to this day..... Mr. Beam, Lower Right pic.....he was and always will be my father.

gah\\\\

You and the Mrs. G have some impressive history. You should be very proud of your family. True American heros.

 

[Col. Klink]

You and the Mrs. G have some impressive history. You should be very proud of your family. True American heros.

+1 Makes me recall my Uncle Elwood who fought at Anzio (Italy) during WW2. He was captured during a recon mission and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp.

 

[sengsational]

I once sold a carton of Pall Malls and an ice cream sandwich to Charles Kuralt.

My FIL was a high school classmate of his.

I knew Michael Jackson fairly well.

You're really into your brewing...associating with the most famous of them all.

Smoked a Doobie with some random "freak" at a concert in 1974...Steven Tyler

Great story!

 

[Bamaman]

As a native Nashvillian, most of the famous people we knew growing up were in the music industry. We knew just about all the stars of the early 60's like Patsy Cline, Roger Miller, Grandpa Jones, Stringbean, Tom T. Hall, Naomi Judd, Faron Young, Johnny Cash (on drugs), The Carter Family . . . . . Brenda Lee lived in our community and sat next to me in church one Easter. My old girlfriend was married to Carl Dean's brother so she was Dolly Parton's sister in law. Nashville is full of Englishmen and Californians who are there laying low from years of hard living--where they can be around great musicians. But the unwritten Nashville rule is that when stars are home, you leave them alone and don't talk to them in public.

 

[Car-Guy]

Let's see, face to face to hear them speak and maybe a quick handshake...

Bill Gates (A little boring)
Larry Ellison (Not as boring as Gates, nor as rich, but close on both accounts)
Colin Powell (Hilarious and smart)
Al Gore (Yawn - low energy (no pun intended)
Bob Woodward (Pretty good speaker)

And more than just a handshake I've met and talked to:

Kay Bailey Hutchison (US Senator) (sat beside her on a flight to Washington - Interesting lady)
Greg Abbott (Texas Governor - my kind of guy)

And a few others I can remember seeing in person:

Bum Phillips (met him at an airport baggage claim)
Darryl Strawberry (saw him at a bar - he's a really tall guy)
George H.W. Bush (just saw him at an awards presentation for a few minutes)

 

[Popeye]

We had Gordie Howe skate at our hockey practice one night. He was at least 55+ but was fast and strong as an ox. I have a great picture with him and my brother. Once he heard we were brothers he put us both in a head lock, one in each arm! In the practice we split into teams and he skated through both teams and scored using only one hand on the stick the whole time. He was there with his son and we chatted for some time after skating.

For an almost controversy, our team was in the Toronto airport after a tournament and saw the Texas Rangers. A couple of their guys were trying to pull practical jokes on people with a dollar bill tied to a string. Of course, a couple of our guys made some disparaging comments and a few glances were exchanged but luckily it was time to board soon. Calmly ignoring it all in the background was Nolan Ryan. He had taken a no hitter deep into the game earlier that day.

For clarification our team was strictly amateur however we had a few guys who grew up in south Philly with the Broad Street Bullies. That definitely influenced their view when we were in hockey mode!

 

[lucky penny]

King Gustaf VI of Sweden (in 1966)

Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter - at an event during the Democratic convention in NYC in 1976 (& sat with some of his children at dinner). Nice folks

Got a very sweet letter from Paul McCartney in 1965 - never met him though.

 

[COcheesehead]

As a native Nashvillian, most of the famous people we knew growing up were in the music industry. We knew just about all the stars of the early 60's like Patsy Cline, Roger Miller, Grandpa Jones, Stringbean, Tom T. Hall, Naomi Judd, Faron Young, Johnny Cash (on drugs), The Carter Family . . . . . Brenda Lee lived in our community and sat next to me in church one Easter. My old girlfriend was married to Carl Dean's brother so she was Dolly Parton's sister in law. Nashville is full of Englishmen and Californians who are there laying low from years of hard living--where they can be around great musicians. But the unwritten Nashville rule is that when stars are home, you leave them alone and don't talk to them in public.

Aspen is a little like that too. I’ve seen Chevy Chase, Glenn Frey, Lance Armstrong, Oates of Hall and Oates and a few others in town. People just let them be.

 

[redduck]

I actually touched Elvis. Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo early 70's. He was riding in a golf cart waving and I reached out and he touched my hand..

Second base with a Royal well known in European classical music circles.

I guess you have COZICAN beat.

Maybe not. Sounds like NYEXPAT might be referring to the well-known Royal, Prince Philip.

 

[MarieIG]

Maybe not. Sounds like NYEXPAT might be referring to the well-known Royal, Prince Philip.

 

[EarlyBirdly]

On an acid trip in the early 70's I met god. Pretty smart entity.

https://youtu.be/H89XiE7GWao

 

[lucky penny]

Calmly ignoring it all in the background was Nolan Ryan. He had taken a no hitter deep into the game earlier that day.

I "met" Nolan Ryan too. I'm a baseball fan & years ago I heard that the Rangers, who were in NYC for a game, were staying at a hotel near my office & that Ryan would likely sign autographs when the team left for the game. I quickly bought a baseball & went to the hotel, where a line of autograph seekers was waiting on the sidewalk near the entrance. Sure enough, a few minutes later as the team emerged & headed for the bus, Ryan went right to the line & started signing. He signed for several minutes, was polite but didn't say much. Many of those waiting were probably dealers & someone mentioned to me that he wouldn't sign more than one item per person and that if you got back in line to try again he'd remember you because he looked at everyone's shoes! (That might be apocryphal, but that's what i remember.) Anyway I got that autograph & probably mumbled a few words as he signed - what can you say that he hasn't heard a million times? I still have that ball.

 

[Rianne]

Tell us about Stevie Nicks. I grew up on Fleetwood Mac music.

Fleetwood Mac came to the Assembly Hall at U of I. They stayed at the hotel (The University Inn) I was working at part time (only worked there a short time) behind the front desk on the night shift.

Five white limos pulled up. Mick Fleetwood (I did not meet him) had the reservation under the name "Captain Bligh." I knew that meant someone famous was staying there, but not who.
They all walked through, press everywhere.
During the night (BTW, Stevie Nicks is very short), there was a bomb scare...I worked the 11 pm to 7 am shift, helped as the night auditor. Stevie Nicks came down in her robe...frantic. She paced back and forth at the front desk in a panic. She was loudly saying "where are the police, what is going on?" I tried to calm her down, said this is probably fake. Our exchange was tense. Everything turned out OK and they left the next morning. Lindsey Buckingham was gorgeous. I did not talk to him.

 

[ncbill]

Bill Russell at an IHOP in Redding, Roger Mudd, & several country music singers when dad was manager of a weekend outdoor music festival (but I just missed Johnny Cash)