Meeting celebrities in random places

Then President Clinton flirted with my Wife then gave me a ya whatever. Ahoile. Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw both great. Chip Foose was the absolute coolest, made all the snappy people wait while he signed my car. Many famous musicians who were mostly very cool except for Johnny Winter who was one of the scariest looking and acting people ever.Stevie Wonder gave me a ya whatever too.Randy Pobst kicked my ass at Road Atlanta with a smile. My Brother met John Wayne, said he was a super good guy. He said that Carroll Shelby,Chuck Yeager and John Travolta were the same.

I met Peter Yarow back in '02. He was touring elementry schools IIRC, on an anti-bully tour.

My co-worker Lisa bumped into Tekei at a Con back in the 70s, literally. She was in a rush to leave, came around a corner and ran into George Tekei, knocking him over. She grabed up what she dropped, said "Sorry Sulu" and ran off.

Shared an elevator at a posh NYC hotel with Sean Penn once.

Ran into Drew Barrymore at a hole in the wall dive bar in LA. Smok-- er, entertained a couple members of the Dap Kings at my apartment after a show. Al Hrabosky signed my Cubs cap in a mock-infuriated manner in a restaurant when I was a kid.

My sister's in a movie with Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead and Doug Jones from, like, every cool modern sci-fi/fantasy movie. Does that count?

Drew Barrymore is one of my celeb crushes . . .

Its funny, no one ever comes up to me when I go out.

At 60, I've met a fair number of famous people, but it's the car guys and gals I really remember.

I've stood next to Paul Newman in several driver's meetings (for club races) at Lime Rock. He's quiet and low key. His wife (Joann W,) came over and chatted with us one time. Harrison Ford did his tailwheel checkout at my local airport in the same J3 Cub that I was renting. It was cool meeting him in an airplane hanger and talking about flying. He's another quiet guy. He went to the local diner with a couple of my friends wearing a hat and dark glasses and the waitress never recognized him (I missed that).

I met Gerry Coker (designer of the Austin-Healey 100 and original Sprite) about ten years ago. Around the same time, I met Trevor Wilkinson, the guy who started TVR (the "TVR" comes from his first name). Those two guys are in the first little photo.

And a guy much less famous, but I'll mention because he is one of my racing pals is Storm Field. He's a local TV weather guy (his Dad is Dr. Frank Field...also a TV weather guy). Great guy and fellow MG racer....has an MGA coupe and MGB-GT/V8). That's me and him taken a few weeks ago at the PVGP.

People have met me in all kind of strange places.

My coolest GRM-ish encounter was about ten years ago. I sent an email for information about the Maine Forrest Rally. About a week later, the phone rings and a guy asks for me.

"Hi, Jeff? This is John Buffam..."

Dr. Hess wrote: We met Billy Lane in Sturgis a few years ago, before his DWI/prison time. He was real nice, but really messed up at a bear garden on Main Street. In '02, I rode up and stayed at a campground. There was one part of the campground marked off as "clean and sober." Not too many tents there, but there was a small tent with Captain America parked outside most of the time. I didn't pay much attention. The next year, we camped at the same campground and I was talking with a woman camped near us. She said remember the Captain America bike last year? Yeah. She saw some guy riding it and she asked him, "Who do you think you are? Peter Fonda?" He said "Uh, well, ahh, I am Peter Fonda."

No celebrity brushes here, but the Peter Fonda story reminds me of a buddy who went to his gym one morning and who should be there but Garth Brooks (in town for a concert). My bud has a little sense so he left him alone and just went about his workout, a few minutes later another member who can best be described as 'That Guy' walks in, goes past GB, does a double take and says 'You know, you look just like Garth Brooks'. GB is still pumping away on the stationary bike, looks in the mirrors, says 'Son of a gun. I do, don't I?' and That Guy just keeps going, never realizing...

Come to think of it, I do have a few celeb brushes. Partied with 'Mother's Finest' many years ago at a friend's house, all pretty nice people. Stayed after a concert to talk with Seals and Crofts, I remember they were pitching the Baha'i faith thing. I drove a motorhome to Fort Jackson which was used by some of the cast of 'Hee Haw' (yeah it's been a long time ago) for between sets R&R. The girls were fantastic looking! Then there was Linda Vaughn signing T shirts at my dad's speed shop grand opening. I found one of the shirts the other day at my mom's house. Met a BUNCH of the MX/offroad race crowd over the years, my vote for all around great rider and nice guy is Scott Summers. Funniest part: there was an ad current at the time which showed SS with a wrist cast sitting on an XR600 and the tagline was 'Scott Summers shows that it is possible to break something on an XR'. When I met him, I was in a full length left leg cast from breaking my leg on my XR400. I told him how it happened, he laughed and signed my cast. I still have it somewhere.

When I interned at Rally America, I got to have some good conversations with all of the competitors. ACP was pretty cool, I didn't bother Travis or Ken very much because they were always busy with fans...

I got to meet Derek Jeter when I was a kid. I wasn't that impressed.

I met Danica Patrick at an Indycar "thing", she was pretty bitchy...

Maroon92 wrote: I met Danica Patrick at an Indycar "thing", she was pretty bitchy...

Wow...I'm shocked.

Oh, wait, I guess I'm not.

Met the entire Miami Heat basketball team... went through a revolving door with Shaq.. he is big.

Met Rascal Flats.

Stumbled into an elevator drunk (my birthday) and ran into Big Boi (OutKast fame)...

... and all of those were at the same hotel in Atlanta. Four Season on 14th and Peachtree.

Oh, I just thought of another one. I was an extra on a TV show called Denim Blues back in the late 80's. One of the actors in the show was a girl named Sandra Oh. I wonder what happened to her?

I think I met a congressman once.. I was in a bathroom stall at an applebees and I saw a foot come into my stall..

In reply to GrantMLS:

It may have been me, I have a rather wide stance and Applebee's goes through me like Sherman through Atlanta.

Keith wrote: Oh, I just thought of another one. I was an extra on a TV show called Denim Blues back in the late 80's. One of the actors in the show was a girl named Sandra Oh. I wonder what happened to her?

Isn't she on one of the hospital shows?

Wally wrote: In reply to GrantMLS: It may have been me, I have a rather wide stance and Applebee's goes through me like Sherman through Atlanta.

forgot one.... was out jogging many yrs ago ( when I still had knees that worked ) and passed Willie Nelson out for a jog... he was in town for a concert .. went to show that night

Rode the elevator at a motel near Road Atlanta with Geoff Brabham and Derek Dailey. Also rode to lunch in an early M3 driven by Jeremy Dale when I was doing the Skip Barber school(we went thru the entry gate at 90mph). Ate lunch next to the Al Holbert family in the grassy area near the Tower at Road Atlanta. Got to talk to Mario Andretti at a local Toyota dealership about being at the same track and event together(the Grand Prix of Tampa in 1988). Of course he was in a Porsche 962 and I was in a Firehawk 944.

Magic Johnson at LAX, Joe Namath staggering out of a liquor store at 1 am blind drunk in Hollywood, I politely made out with Parker Posey in the wee hours of a really fun not at all a film "industry" New Years party in the Hollywood hills, was in a car looking at winter waves near Santa Cruz and the only other person their was Neil Young in some big old restored vintage car. um. Jack Klugman on Catalina Island. Some super Model at a Burning Man camp... Good Lord she was hot. More of the swimsuit variety than the skinny heroin addict variety. I can still smell her... Same camp that the British Artist Julian Hirsh was at. Lenny Kravits backstage at a Steelly Dan concert. We talked abut basketball and how fun it would be to play in some sort of 50k a year semi pro league. I thought that was odd, and cool.

I was on a plane with Roc...that guy from Rudy. I was also on a plane with the Hardy Boys and Lita.

I didn't speak to any of them though.

I met Johnboy and Billy (syndicated radio hosts) at the Fish camp jam in Gastonia, NC years ago.

My biggest meeting was Rick Flair while I was a member of his Gold's Gym franchise in Charlotte, NC. I made a crack about how he lost a bet with the a fore mentioned Johnboy. Rick Flair called me a smartass.

I almost forgot...My cousin is good friends with Dale Jr. I've never met him though.

Living near Plains, GA it is not uncommon to run into President Carter (I've done some work for him).

But Rosalyn C. in the cornbread aisle at the Piggly Wiggly was great! The 2 big guys at the 2 ends of the aisle who didn't quite fit into their suits and had curly wires coming out of their ears certainly seemed out of place.

I also have a fond memory of at our local family owned lumber yard. As is the case most mornings, there were a bunch of older guys standing around shooting the breeze. Most looked like farmers. One older fellow had on bib overalls, a straw hat, and was chewing on a straw. When I looked closer, it was President Carter. Turns out, he is a fairly accomplished woodworker and was buying some wood like the rest of us. The best moment was watching him leave the parking lot in a caravan of black SUV's, one of which had a couple of boards sticking out of the back window.

Met James Gandolfini while outprocessing out of Iraq.

My favorite story is not my own:

My local dirt oval rc track is out in Beach Lake, PA and is located on farmland. At the time the water supply was just a garden hose that was run from the farm house. A snap early season snow storm left powder deep enough for snowmobiling and two particular individuals decided to enjoy it. They cut thru the property and across the garden hose thus ripping it apart.

On their way back, Dot, the farmer's wife, and in her late 60's, stood in their way and stopped them and proceeded to tear them a new orifice.

They sulked, and apologised, but never took off their helmets.

An hour later they returned with a brand new 100' garden hose and removed their helmets. . .

Yep. Mario and Michael.

I met Sir Sterling Moss and Augie Pabst at a Midwest Council banquet a few years ago, both had some great stories. Met Juan Montoya at Daytona also very nice. Met Boris Said a few times flagging corners, always thanks corner workers and asks where I was stationed at. Randy Pobst does the same thing. Walked into Bobby Rahal in the can. He just about knocked me over. And now for a Danica story; I asked her to sign a picture that I had taken out of Autoweek when she won in Japan. She looked at it and I told her that was how my daughter looked when she beat the old man at the track. She winked at me and said "That's what daddys are for." and signed the picture.

Returned home at Greenville-Spartanburg Airport once and stood next to Johnny Unitas at the baggage claim. I didn't bother him because he looked like arthritis was kiccking his butt.