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Your brush with greatness


BR46

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We all know that @Wilbur can win this game but what is your best story.

Most of mine are from dinners and meetings at Road America but one that does not involve motorcycles or racing was  at a bar in Milwaukee sitting next to Jim Belushi. We had a nice conversation about the upcoming new show According to Jim 

With the motorcycle racing I've sat in the pits after the races with some famous factory racers, past champions and past team owners tipping a few beers swapping stories.  

 

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In high school (class of 1973) , in addition to taking the advanced math, and science, etc.. that eventually got me into college for mechanical engineering. I also just totally enjoyed taking auto shop class each year.   Yeah geek like me had a knack to understand how to work on cars.  

At my HS in Villa Park, IL, named Willowbrook HS, the auto shop teacher entered a team each year into the Plymouth Trouble Shooting Contest.  In 1973 Dave and  I were the team of 2 students to represent our school in the contest .  Alan Loew was our teacher, he was an incredible guy.

From the linked article;

Over 40 years, Willowbrook students have finished first, second or third in the state 26 times in the contest. It was sponsored by Plymouth from 1960 to 1994, when Ford and the American Automobile Association took it over.

Dave and I won the contest in 1973 in the State of Illinois contest.  :party:  We were interviewed by Chicago WLS radio about our win.  My brother visited our old HS a few years ago, and apparently Dave's and my picture is still on the wall of fame for the auto shop class.   (I should visit some day, to see if it's still there.)

We won the trip to the 1973 national contest, an all expense paid trip to Boston.   Teams from all over the US were there.  We had our car running first at that contest.  We were way ahead of the other teams.  Then 'doubt' took over...  It was like OMG.. Dave our car is the only car working,  it can't be this easy.... what did we miss???    We f'd around for WAY too long, looking for the nonexistent problem.   That plus we had written test scores that were not our best....  we were 13th in the US that year.  :(   If we would have cloed the hood and drove to the inspection area, we may have won, or at least paced a LOT higher. 

That night...  we meet the Wisconsin team.  And we went out drinking in downtown Boston with them.   OMG was I hung over the next day. :wacko:  We flew home to Chicago in a 747 jet, they were only a few years old then.  I was miserable the entire flight...  

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I've met some famous drag racers.  Due to a mixup one weekend my bracket car got paired with Ronnie Sox's superstock car during time trials in Suffolk VA.  I left on him and he noticed, stopping by to see me in the pits later.  Of course he drove by me at about the 18" mark.  :lol:

Through the RC cars though I've met a Playboy playmate, Keven Dineen the hockey player, Sylvain Turgeon and a couple of other Whalers.

I am sure none of them would count me as anyone they ever met though.

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Wife has me beat on this when working at a Neo-natal intensive care center - parents and grand-parents interaction. Dick Van Dyke, Alice Cooper (actually picked up wife and child driving a mini-van...so much for the image), also accompanied Mohamed Ali when touring/visiting patients (while he was in advance stages of decline, shocked a male nurse with a 'sting like a bee air boxing.' In high school dated Harry Casey (Casey and the Sunshine Band), and also classmate with Bucky Dent (NY Yankee player/coach/manager).

Me? In the Air Force met a few visiting astronauts, and when Great Britain, the official visit of the Prince of Wales. In high school, played trumpet in band with Jim Alchin - Microsoft Exe VP developed their networks, then headed consumer Windows Vista/7 development before retiring and now back to music with his own studio.

EDIT: Forgot, Carrot-Top joining our group cycling rides when he is in town. Native of Winter Park, FL, but now dual residence supporting his Las Vegas performances.  

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At a county high school coaches meeting, we had Baltimore Colts Hall of Famer, Defensive End Art Donovan (the one who wrote the book "Fatso" and was on Letterman a lot) as a guest speaker. I slipped my Dad into the meeting, pretending he was an assistant coach, and Artie sat directly across from us at a 3' wide table during a roast beef dinner.  Artie put away about a dozen 16 oz. Schlitz beers and my Dad drank his share as they shared WW2 stories for half an hour.

Artie also shared football stories, including the time the circus had been in Yankee Stadium the day before and the grounds crew did a lousy job cleaning up. So when the Giants set on offense, the Colt Defensive Line grabbed handfuls of elephant shit and tossed it at them, trying to make them jump before the snap and draw a 5 yard-penalty.

Another time, I was having trouble with a piece I was working on with my Chinese-born, virtuosa piano teacher, Frances Cheng-Koors, and said, "I'll never be the next Lang-Lang," the virtuoso who plays to sold-out classical audiences worldwide.

Frances replied, "Would you like to meet him?  He sent me two backstage passes to the party after his concert in Washington and you can have them. It's sold out, but the company you bought your piano from is the concert's sponsor and I bet if you tell them you've got an extra backstage pass they'll find a free ticket for you."

It worked out as she said and I got to meet the famous pianist and have a short conversation about the Chinese music scale - he had played European classical music and some ancient Chinese stuff.

1194779319_MickLangLang1-lighter_900p.jpg.e23a6d72d4a5b9dcd8349a46fb1843d3.jpg 1573479951_LAngLAngConcertTicket.thumb.jpg.55222135dbd27a79a14eb5449d88b9dc.jpg

 

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I can’t say I really interacted with many famous people but I have been around them for work. 

I had bumped into Greg LeMond as he was riding the 1984 Olympic road course. He chatted with us for several minutes. The only famous person I interacted with outside of work.

 I had worked numerous presidential details for President Reagan & would do PT runs with VP George H Bush.   I worked a security detail for Princes Diana & stood so close to her I could smell her perfume. I worked a tea party for Nancy Reagan. I saw numerous Hollywood stars working security at Sony Pictures, Harrison Ford, Sandra Bullock, Whitney Houston, Pat Sajak, Vanna White,  Alex Trebek, Barbara Streisand & a bunch of lesser known stars.  I also worked a detail for the Rabbi Hier.  

I haven’t really interacted with anyone of note since I got promoted out of ops & into management in the late 1990’s.

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33 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

I can’t say I really interacted with many famous people but I have been around them for work. 

I had bumped into Greg LeMond as he was riding the 1984 Olympic road course. He chatted with us for several minutes. The only famous person I interacted with outside of work.

 I had worked numerous presidential details for President Reagan & would do PT runs with VP George H Bush.   I worked a security detail for Princes Diana & stood so close to her I could smell her perfume. I worked a tea party for Nancy Reagan. I saw numerous Hollywood stars working security at Sony Pictures, Harrison Ford, Sandra Bullock, Whitney Houston, Pat Sajak, Vanna White,  Alex Trebek, Barbara Streisand & a bunch of lesser known stars.  I also worked a detail for the Rabbi Hier.  

I haven’t really interacted with anyone of note since I got promoted out of ops & into management in the late 1990’s.

OK you win

I've met a bunch of top motorcycle racers and champions along with a bunch of car racers with being involved with Road America and motorcycle racing. 

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1 hour ago, BR46 said:

OK you win

I've met a bunch of top motorcycle racers and champions along with a bunch of car racers with being involved with Road America and motorcycle racing. 

I consider myself just a regular guy who had the good fortune to have done some really cool stuff. I feel kinda like Forrest Gump sometimes.  I mean a strange twist here, an odd turn there and maybe I can say I bumped into Greg Lemond once…

Oh and add in Neve Campbell, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lacey Chebert, Jean Claude Van Dam, Barry Manilow & if I keep thinking more actors & musicians will come to mind I interacted at Sony Pictures.

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During RAGBRAI in 1996 my son and I go to this place selling breakfast. We sit down across from this very tall dude with a wicked mustache. He looks familiar but I can't place him. He starts talking football and I realize that it's Ben Davidson who played for the Raiders and a few other teams. He was famous for sacking Bob Griese and basically stuffing him into the ground. During another game he caused a foul so bad that they had to change the rules of football. You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Davidson

He was talking about how pancakes might have changed football. Back in those days they were served steak and eggs before the game. Sports nutrition wasn't a thing back then. Before one game one his teammates requested pancakes instead. This was unheard of and broke tradition. If they had lost that game, pancakes would have been banned. They won. Before the next game more players ate pancakes and they won again. By the end of the season almost everyone was eating pancakes and Ben said that may have given the players more endurance as this was before things like Gatorade on the sidelines. They went to the Super Bowl that year. I think that he rode RAGBRAI about 8 times. At 6'8" he was quite a sight on the bicycle. 

I ran into C&W singer Kenny Price (The Round Mound of Sound) a couple of times before he made it big. He was a local celebrity on Cincinnati TV. Once we were fishing at the same lake and talked fishing for a while. I was about 10 years old at the time.

Ben Davidson 810.jpg

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12 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

I consider myself just a regular guy who had the good fortune to have done some really cool stuff. I feel kinda like Forrest Gump sometimes.  I mean a strange twist here, an odd turn there and maybe I can say I bumped into Greg Lemond once…

Oh and add in Neve Campbell, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lacey Chebert, Jean Claude Van Dam, Barry Manilow & if I keep thinking more actors & musicians will come to mind I interacted at Sony Pictures.

And I only got to sit in the VIP tower at Road America with Augie Pabst and another time with Mario Andretti. I did line up in a motorcycle race Chris Carr. I beat him to turn 1...he passed me in turn 2....I followed him through turn 3 and I never seen him again.

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WoBG and I took our daughter and her girlfriend (both where in HS or possibly in college, can't remember now) to see David Copperfield preform in Peoria IL.  By some miracle I got second row seats. 

During his show DC selects people from the audience to help with the illusion.   He starts looking towards our seats for the next person to help on stage.  I was sure he was going to pick one of the young women or even WoBG.   No... he picks me.  Yeah I got to be 'the guy' to help on stage.   It was interesting... and didn't have a clue how he did the illusion. 

This was the illusion.   That's not me.

 

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So, circa 1997, I'm waiting in the D Concourse of the ATL waiting to to take my Embraer puddle jumper back to GTR. GTR was only serviced by the Delta Connection at the time, so if you died, you either had to fly DC to Dallas or ATL before you could connect to heaven or hell. It was the last flight of the day, ~9:30 PM and really, only the die hards booked it, because if there was any SNAFU (and there usually was due to weather, mechanicals, crew time, solar spots and/or pilot flatulence) you were stuck in the ATL at a flea bag hotel for another night.

I got to the gate early, checked in & was fiddling with my computer, prolly writing self-running macros on XL for our semi-automated customer inventory control project or sumsuch. A group of three guys walks up to the gate, an older gentleman, a nondescript guy, and a guy that I'm sure I have met before Mental roladex says "Steve", no last name, no company, no context. Now, I met a lot of people in that job, from chemical handlers & unloaders to pulp mill managers & VPs. I think it's a guy I've met one-off time in a big meeting.

"Steve" meanders back down the concourse & the other two sit down. The older guy has a small pine tree lapel pin (re-enforcing my pulp mill connection). My computer was on, so I opened Lotus Organizer & searched for "Steve". Three entries, none of them this guy.

"Steve" wanders back with a soft drink and sits two seats away from me. It takes about 5 minutes to screw up my courage and swallow my pride.

I lean over and say, "Hi, I'm 2Far, I think we've met, and I'm sorry, but for the life of me, I cannot remember your name."

Guy shakes my hand, "Nice to meet you 2Far. I'm Steve,                                             Steve Forbes."

(Ha, I knew it was Steve!) but a blank on the rest of the info. Mental roladex sounds like a Thompson sub-machine gun. Nothing. "And What company are you with?"

SF: "Forbes Magazine"

Oooooh, that Steve Forbes. Billionaire. Publisher. Former Presidential Candidate. ((Help me out of my shoooooooooooooe))

He was very gracious, It was after his '96 run. I asked if he was going to do it again, and he said he was going to wait until after the '98 mid-term elections to decide. He was on his way to MSU to give a talk. Nice convo.

I sat next to the older guy on the flight and expressed surprise that SF was flying on a puddle jumper to GTR. The guy said he goes by helicopter in the NE but flies commercial a lot to the rest of the country.

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3 hours ago, 2Far said:

So, circa 1997, I'm waiting in the D Concourse of the ATL waiting to to take my Embraer puddle jumper back to GTR. GTR was only serviced by the Delta Connection at the time, so if you died, you either had to fly DC to Dallas or ATL before you could connect to heaven or hell. It was the last flight of the day, ~9:30 PM and really, only the die hards booked it, because if there was any SNAFU (and there usually was due to weather, mechanicals, crew time, solar spots and/or pilot flatulence) you were stuck in the ATL at a flea bag hotel for another night.

I got to the gate early, checked in & was fiddling with my computer, prolly writing self-running macros on XL for our semi-automated customer inventory control project or sumsuch. A group of three guys walks up to the gate, an older gentleman, a nondescript guy, and a guy that I'm sure I have met before Mental roladex says "Steve", no last name, no company, no context. Now, I met a lot of people in that job, from chemical handlers & unloaders to pulp mill managers & VPs. I think it's a guy I've met one-off time in a big meeting.

"Steve" meanders back down the concourse & the other two sit down. The older guy has a small pine tree lapel pin (re-enforcing my pulp mill connection). My computer was on, so I opened Lotus Organizer & searched for "Steve". Three entries, none of them this guy.

"Steve" wanders back with a soft drink and sits two seats away from me. It takes about 5 minutes to screw up my courage and swallow my pride.

I lean over and say, "Hi, I'm 2Far, I think we've met, and I'm sorry, but for the life of me, I cannot remember your name."

Guy shakes my hand, "Nice to meet you 2Far. I'm Steve,                                             Steve Forbes."

(Ha, I knew it was Steve!) but a blank on the rest of the info. Mental roladex sounds like a Thompson sub-machine gun. Nothing. "And What company are you with?"

SF: "Forbes Magazine"

Oooooh, that Steve Forbes. Billionaire. Publisher. Former Presidential Candidate. ((Help me out of my shoooooooooooooe))

He was very gracious, It was after his '96 run. I asked if he was going to do it again, and he said he was going to wait until after the '98 mid-term elections to decide. He was on his way to MSU to give a talk. Nice convo.

I sat next to the older guy on the flight and expressed surprise that SF was flying on a puddle jumper to GTR. The guy said he goes by helicopter in the NE but flies commercial a lot to the rest of the country.

Just remembered I met the former host (then current host) of Good Morning America David Hartman at Washington National Airport.  I was in uniform picking someone up and he came out of the gate, walked right up to me & thanked me for my service shaking my hand. 

This was 1980’s where we were more likely to be called baby killers as post Vietnam war angst was still prevalent.  It surprised me he did that. 

I also remembered I had a nice but short chat with Jack Nicholson at Sony.  Really nice guy. 

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14 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

The Shining Heres Johnny GIF - TheShining HeresJohnny JackNicholson GIFs

He popped out of a trailer in the back lot.  I was trying to get a moment of quiet so was just chilling back there amongst the trailers where nobody was.  I wore a suit but had a police style badge on my belt with my creds.  He sees my badge and says something like hey how’s it goin there chief?  Oh great sir but I’m not the chief, just a little fish in this pond. Aint we all, aint we all as he’s doing the distinctive laugh walking away. 

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My favorite was Jens Voigt. Trek, in partnership with the LBS sent Jens to visit and give a talk. We had about 100 customers in there to see Jens. After everyone went home we walked two blocks to a dive bar, the Vienna Inn where Jens had his first chili dog. Very nice, down to earth guy. 

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11 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

He popped out of a trailer in the back lot.  I was trying to get a moment of quiet so was just chilling back there amongst the trailers where nobody was.  I wore a suit but had a police style badge on my belt with my creds.  He sees my badge and says something like hey how’s it goin there chief?  Oh great sir but I’m not the chief, just a little fish in this pond. Aint we all, aint we all as he’s doing the distinctive laugh walking away. 

I was at Road America with my son who was about 10 at the time and I don't remember exactly why I was in the media center at the time but Scott Zampach was being interviewed about his race win when we were in the center.  I'm friends with the race team owner that Scott raced for and my son and I were walking out of the media center and going to head back to the pits. My son's eyes lit up when Scott said you want a ride back to the pits. 

So we are riding back with Scott in his golf cart when my son asked Scott to sign his shirt and Scott said you ever ask you dad for his autograph? Your dad goes to work everyday and the only difference is I drive a motorcycle for a living. 

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A few years ago we were racing at Barber motorsports park and after the days events may son and I ended up in the pits (they were pitted a few spots down from us) with the guy who use to own the Hooters Suzuki Superbike team and x pro racer Aaron Yates.

Aaron got up to go get rid of a beer and when he walked away I asked my son if ever told Aaron that he had a autographed poster of Aaron on his bed room wall when he was 11.

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I wouldn't exactly call them "greats" in the general term but I have met and spent time with several famous sports personalities.

Derek Jeter around 2015 made the engagement ring for his wife, Hannah. 3.15 ct IF, D, Ideal. Stunning stone for a stunning and delightful woman.

Jameel Cook, fullback for the Buccanears (2001 circa), was my nextdoor neighbor when I moved to Florida. Used to swap rims with him and his escalade and do training workouts with him. I was like an entourage member, kinda cool then.

John Cena around 2015 set the stone and sized the ring for the Tiffany piece he purchased for his engagement to Nikki Bella (who was a class A cunt to the security staff).

Jeff Vinik, owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, serviced his watches for a few years and got private invites to team meet & greets, free tickets and a bunch of swag. Jeff is a humble human being that wants everyone to be excited about hockey and real estate as much as he is. I could certainly do the former more than the latter but he was a good sport about it.

There have probably been other slighter brushes; before I made the ring for Jeter I drank a whole night away with the "Core Four", this was of course back when I drank and I gave a shit about baseball, probably 2003-2004? Got to have a small conversation with Alastair Reynolds at a book signing way back too. Mans way too smart for his own good.

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