This, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. (Which, come to think of it, is the secret to getting autographs isn't it? Boy, I are smart)
The cast members of Lost in Space were staying at a hotel I worked at and in lieu of a tip, they apparently thought I wanted their signature.
According to this I was 10 when a family friend lived next door to Marvin Hagler. In fact, my uncle bought a Crown Vic from him sometime during the 80's.
Anyhow, at the risk of sounding like an ungrateful little twerp, I remember not asking for this.
Looking back, of course, I realize it was a nice thing for him to do.
I remember knowing who he was & not really caring.
I only went that day so I could see the hot rod in said friend's garage.
Actually, you can see this paper turned in to scrap....probably the same day.
The back has a phone number belonging to another of my folk's friends, along with directions to a summer place in Maine.
I'm sure you've guessed by now that I'm no real sports fan but I always thought picture was great:
My father worked with both Bobby Orr & M.L. Carr during some phone company promotion.
The ball wouldn't fit on the scanner.
These next few, I actually do care about...if you can believe it.
I wouldn't call them "Prized possessions" or anything but once a month I loose my mind thinking I've lost them.
I tear the place apart, thinking they've been thrown out, or worse, only to find them tucked away safe and sound.
I open the folder they are in, look at them for a minute or two then put them gingerly away, as if they were made of glass...only to forget where they hell I put them almost immediately.
From the time I was a new born until I got my driver's license, you would have had to pry my bicycle from my cold dead hands.
When The Hutch Trick Team was on their '85 tour, there was no way I was gonna miss it.
These ring a bell with anyone?
Paul DeLaurio, Woody Itson?
If I remember correctly, "The Bowz" was the announcer & Ritter (who's first name I can't quite make out, or remember) was the replacement for.....uh...maybe a broken Mike Dominguez?
If anyone knows, I'd absolutely love to hear it.
Finally, mercifully, there's this one:
I must have been, I dunno, 13(?) when I sent my SASE to BMX Plus! for this & its one of those things that's just survived.
Speaking of surviving, there is one that didn't but I've still got to mention.
Sometime in the mid 90's a friend and I went to see Dick Dale.
He played downstairs at a pretty well known Indian restaurant around here & when he started in on "Stairway to Heaven"
we sought refuge.
Unfortunately this was only the second song in the set & he'd already reminded the audience that if it wasn't for him there would have been no Jimmy Page, no Jimi Hendrix no blah, blah, blah.......
So, we're upstairs commiserating when this elderly looking woman in a bright red dress & matching lipstick plunked herself down at the next table.
Dick, being a local guy (at least for the first few years of his life) still had family in the area & they always showed up for his gigs.
"How are you?" My friend asks.
"Well" she says, "I'm only Dick Dale's aunt is all!"
I might have mumbled, "I see where he gets it." under my breath but my friend and I lied through our teeth telling her just how big of fans we were.
We poured it on enough for her to slam her hands on the table and say, "Well I'm going to get you boys his autograph!"
At that moment my friend and I jumped.
I saw his eyes open wide.
I felt mine do the same thing.
We had the same thought.
Not a second had passed when we said, in unison, "Can we have your autograph?!?!"
She was tickled pink.
Leaning back in her chair, hand over her heart, the whole bit she says, "Why of course!"
She was up & out of that chair...I didn't know orthopedic shoes moved so fast..and before you could say, "Let's Go Trippin" was back & scrawling "To Richie, from Dick Dale's aunt Helen" across a photo copy of her nephew's famous guitar face.
Oh!
Yes, it was in red ink (of course) and yes it was the rolling Palmer Method grandmothers are known for.
Unfortunately, that was a casualty of a basement flood I suffered sometime around the turn of the century.
3 comments:
the woody itson one is the best.
i met marvin hagler once. at the bickford's on oak st. in brockton. at 3am...
I remember her saying, 'At least somebody got out of Quincy and did something with themselves!", ....classic!
Had dinner recently with Bob Haro and Woody Itson. Back in the early 80's I had a Haro built 1/4 pipe in my friends back yard...Used to beat the crap out of my Hutch doing drop ins and table top airs....
Post a Comment