Interesting topic. I am not a celebrity chaser because I pretty much keep to myself, but, I have met a couple.
20 years ago, I was at a county convention and met Dubya (President G.W. Bush) when he was the governor, just before he announced he was going to run. After he spoke, he left the podium and walked down our aisle and for no apparent reason, he stopped at our row and talked to us for a while. We talked and shook his hand, he was very friendly.
I met Earl Campbell on several occasions; twice at the same car wash! He was very down to earth, very nice and engaging. One time, he was eating a McDonalds breakfast and asked us to wait until he got done to get a picture with him. After he got done, we just sat on the bench next to him and talked for quite a while. He was alone and didn’t rush us off nor was he in a hurry to go anywhere. This had to be one of my favorite encounters.
This next encounter wasn’t really a meet or greet or even a get acquainted thing, per se, but it was a moment that both of us knew happened. In 1982, at the Springfield Creamery’s 2nd Field trip (an outdoor Grateful Dead concert) in Veneta, Oregon is where it happened. With thousands of zombied deadheads jumping around in circles listening and dancing to their own imaginations, the moment happened.
I made my way up to the front of the stage just to take it all in and experience the experience. With 30,000+ in attendance, you would think that it would be shoulder to shoulder up there, but, for some reason or another, I was standing alone in the middle of a 20’ to 30’ radius looking up at the stage. As I was watching Jerry Garcia play, we made eye contact. I know, so you made eye contact, big deal…yea…you may be right. But, none the less, we made eye contact, and we both knew it. He gave me a thumbs up and I returned one to him. To me, that was awesome! Afterwards, Jerry just kept on playing. After all these years, I would have to say that this is still one of my favorite moments.