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אַרְיֵה |
Something way earlier than that: 1929, car radio, the company that he co-founded to manufacture them became known as "Motorola." הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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| Page late and a dollar short |
I wasn’t aware of the Motorola connection, thank you. -------------------------------------—————— ————————--Ignorance is a powerful tool if applied at the right time, even, usually, surpassing knowledge(E.J.Potter, A.K.A. The Michigan Madman) | |||
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delicately calloused |
I was a child actor with Gordon Jump. Was on a televised Christmas special he produced. Cissy from Family Affair was on it too. She shook my hand. Marie Osmond put her arm around me once. I stopped acting when my mom found out how evil some were in Hollywood. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier | |||
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| Stupid Allergy  |
Back when I was a Paramedic in Fort Worth I had one specific call that made a difference. Countless bullshit calls and idiots calling 911 for prescription refills burned me out. But one teenage girl overdosed on Tylenol. A deadly concoction that kills your liver and can lead to a painful death. I vaguely remember just carrying her to the ambulance not wanting to wait to get the stretcher, etc. Pumping her stomach and getting activated charcoal into her was her best shot at saving her. I couldn’t pump her stomach but I found one single bottle of activated charcoal… it had been taken off our protocol list and removed from inventory for some reason. Anyway, I got it down her, started an IV, etc. while my partner drove. I remember checking on her a few days later (this was before HIPA). Her nurse said “you saved her”. Never saw that girl again after taking her to the ER but I hope she’s had a good life. "Attack life, it's going to kill you anyway." Steve McQueen... | |||
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| Member |
I'm not great. No athletic skills, no academic skills, no college degree. I'm a grey man, invisible, do my job to the best of my abilities, put in the hours, worked on average 44 Saturday's a year for 45 years, second shift. I'm a freaking vampire. I've forgotten how to play... Any brushes with greatness have been through my family. Parent's and siblings and in particular my oldest brother who restored vintage Italian Sports cars. My butt has sat in over 100 million dollar worth ( today's prices ) of sports cars and have ridden in 1/3 to 1/2 of them. As a teen I ate dinner frequently with John DeLamater when he was visiting, a founder of the Ferrari club of America. At 18 I spent the day with a future president of the Lambo club, drinking beer while driving through Chicago, sitting on lawn chairs, in the back of my brothers beater utility van, on the way to a Ferrari club meeting where I met Hill Reed The Ferrari club president at he time. Big thrills for a punk, shy, hippie kid. That and $.90 will get you a cup of coffee. But the biggest thing I'm proudest of, the thing that is so damn emotional to remember is when my coworkers tried to get me into a bar when I was 19. Chinks Foundry Lounge. A group of us went in for lunch one day and the owner, Chink, called me out right away. The guys all pleaded with Chink to let me stay but he was insistent I leave. I was scared spit less and was stepping towards the door when the soft spoken, shell shocked vet, Steve, that scarred the crap out of me, grabbed me and yelled at Chink. "Chink, I said this kids alright". Chink, who looked like a pro wrestler said "Well alright Steve". I'd never talked to Steve, he always seemed like he was watching me with a look of disgust on his face. I had heard he was a WW2 airman that flew many missions over Europe. For him to speak up for me, to even notice me, was astounding to me the and is still. Proudest moment in my simple life, to be noticed by, let alone being accepted by a man of this caliber. It made me feel like I had been doing something right in my life (work ethic maybe?) and needed to stay on that on that path. I still get weepy thinking about Steve and guys like him. There was no PTSD back then. One moment in my life that inspired me to be a better man. Thank you Steve. Thank you all veterans and all that wear a uniform. | |||
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Happily Retired |
Well, I slept on the same bed as Mariel Hemmingway. It was a drop hunting camp in Idaho. She had booked it the year before.  That's all I got. .....never marry a woman who is mean to your waitress. | |||
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Member |
I got to meet not once, but twice, Capt. Jaroslav Sustar (Americanized version of Šustr). He was married to my 9th and 10th grade World Studies teacher and he came to talk to us about his time in WWII and after. Sadly, he died shortly thereafter from brain cancer. He had come to America in the 1950's to escape communism and worked as a radio broadcaster in Pittsburgh and then for the FBI in Washington DC. Perhaps you haven't heard of him? He was an officer in the Czech Resistance who worked with the British SOE to assasinate the Nazi Reynard Heydrich, the Butcher of Prague via Operation Anthropoid (PDF link of the Offical Czech Army History) . There's a movie about it.
Capt Jaroslav Šustr:   His obituary from the Washington Post:
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Member |
Yes that was great. A great memory and a great example of a truly great American. Amazing story. Lover of the US Constitution Wile E. Coyote School of DIY Disaster | |||
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"Member" |
One of my oldest and closest friends, I describe him as the Forrest Gump of celebrity interactions. Through a couple different (dissimilar) jobs and just dumb luck in day to day life, he has met dozens of Hollywood celebrities, musical artists, pro athletes and a couple politicians. If anybody else told me they'd met all these people I wouldn't believe them. | |||
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| If you see me running try to keep up  |
I have told this before here, but here it is again. I was in the Air Force in the early 90's and was stationed at Hill AFB in Utah. Being in the lower ranks, I got tasked with dropping off and picking up people at the Salt Lake City Airport. I was poor and an E-4 (most likely an E-3 at the time but that didn't rhyme...) with nothing to do so I did not mind doing that. It was after the first Gulf war was over, being EOD we wore desert camo BDU's and had to be in uniform when doing the airport duty. We stuck out like a sore thumb and were easy to ID in a crowd. EOD worked with Secret Service regularly so we were familiar with how they dressed, the lapel pins that identified them etc. So another Airman and I went to pick someone up and noticed Secret Service on the tarmac and also inside the terminal. We had no idea who was there but eventually saw General H. Norman Schwarzkopf get off a plane. A little while later a SS agent came up and asked us if we knew where the General went (I was thinking, how can the SS lose a General). If I am recalling correctly, the General disembarked the plane and walked past us toward baggage claim. He had an entourage around him so we never got to talk with him. That was my brush with greatness, the General himself. Too bad we never got to speak with him. That is my story the best I can recall. I think over the years as my memory gets worse I should embellish it more. The next time I put it here I may add some more to the story, maybe me saving his life from paparazzi or something....... | |||
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| Member |
When I was young in the late 80s, I was a pretty dang good basketball shooter. I got put into the game cold in the last couple of minutes and hit three 3-pointers against our biggest rival during a very large tournament. Every time the ball left my hands, I KNEW. We won. The applause was thunderous. I got quite a bit of mileage out of that one. As a cop, I've met a lot of famous people, but my favorite was before I was a cop. I was in Memphis in 1990 to see KISS. I was 20. I went by the Peabody Hotel and recognized their tour bus. My friends didn't believe me. We started to go inside the hotel and out walked Paul Stanley. I ran up to him and went total fanboy. I was outside myself. I asked, "Will you play Firehouse tonight?" He looked at me and said, "Weren't you were like 10 years old when that song came out?" I said, "Five, but I'm a fan and you're a legend!" He laughed and shook our hands. Signed autographs for all my friends and we never felt rushed. Even his bodyguard was cool. Paul was a good guy. A buddy of mine in the Arkansas Highway Police stopped an Oklahoma cattle hauler in West Memphis for an inspection. It was occupied by 2 men. He got both their IDs. When he looked at passenger's, it said, "Brooks, Garth." My buddy looked over his sunglasses at the passenger. He sheepishly smiled and nodded his head up and down as if to say, "Yeah." He told my buddy that sometimes he just had to get away and be anonymous, and hauling cattle with his driver gave him that chance. He was a very humble guy and took pics. No, the driver didn't get a ticket since it was just an inspection. | |||
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| אַרְיֵה |
Ginger and Grant Boatwright, founders and 2/3 of the original Red, White, and Blue(Grass), were close friends with my wife and I. Ginger was a songwriter and singer, Grant was an incredible bluegrass guitarist. After Grant's death, Ginger teamed up for a while with Doug Dillard who, with his siblings, played the Darling family on some episodes of Andy Griffith. Doug was the banjo player. My brush with greatness -- when my wife and I lived in the Chicago area, Ginger and her band always stayed at our house when they were working in the area. I once mentioned to Doug that my wife's younger son was a real fan of the Andy Griffith show, it was his favorite. Doug gave me a couple of autographed cast photos for my step-son. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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Member |
Playing right before the guy below. He’s the GOAT so getting to play right before him, and seeing the best in the world (to me) and knowing after I could hold my own with anyone in the world. That became my place setter and my mark to get better. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Clarke_(DJ) What am I doing? I'm talking to an empty telephone | |||
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| Member |
In 1990 while attending the SNCO Career Course at Camp Johnson, NC, we had a mess night. Mess nights are a formal dinner and have a guest speaker. Our guest speaker was Gunnery Sgt Carlos Hathcock (Ret) AKA "White Feather" Marine sniper. After the command "Join me at the bar" Gunny sat a table and signed autographs. Most if not all Marines had a copy of the book chronicling his career (Marine Sniper). I sat with him and conversed (between autographs and pictures) for over an hour. He was very witty and loved talking about firearms and ballistics. Gunny gave me a card with his address and phone number and I fully intended to visit with him. Life had other plans for me. After my next med cruise my mom died of cancer and I got orders to California (29 Palms), by the time I got back to the East Coast, Gunny Hathcock went to guard Heavens gates. Semper Fi Gunny Michael USMC (Ret) | |||
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| Member |
That's pretty damn special. I read his authorized biography, Carlos Hathcock White Feather. It was intense and absorbing. Great memory and story, thanks. Lover of the US Constitution Wile E. Coyote School of DIY Disaster | |||
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| Member |
THAT good sir was truly GREAT, a bona fide brush the the best of greatness. We have to extend that to all our current and former first responders on the Great Sigforum. Lover of the US Constitution Wile E. Coyote School of DIY Disaster | |||
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| Member |
Hmmm. A Hollywood actress spent a nite in a hunting camp. Since we've never heard of Hollywood actresses sleeping in hunting camps you get 1 point for brushing up against greatness. If they didn't wash the sheets you get a bonus point. That's very intersting though, nobody could have ever imagined anything like that, at least not me. Lover of the US Constitution Wile E. Coyote School of DIY Disaster | |||
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| Page late and a dollar short |
Probably two instances. Worked one on one with this gentleman when he was interning at the car dealership I was in management: Charles Alvin Sanders (August 25, 1946 – July 2, 2015) was an American professional football player who was a tight end for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) from 1968 to 1977. Sanders was chosen for the NFL's 1970s All-Decade Team and voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007. He was not “full of himself” as many celebrities in the Detroit area. He did ask me to be part of his future dealership’s management team but the economic slowdown of 79 made me rethink the metro Detroit area and I took an offer out west instead, hence the next story. Second one was my EMT days out west. Local guys single vehicle (motorcycle) crash, stuffed himself into a ditch. Call came in around noon, that run between travel to and from the scene and time at the scent about an hour and a half. Decision was made to transfer him to Albuquerque, 85-90 miles via ground. I was assigned this run also and had to wait at the hospital with my new partner for the word to roll. Now neither time on this run did I work the back, I deferred to both my partners with much more experience so my duties were in loading and unloading, driving, communications. Anyhow, the patient did see me, small town, outsider. Worked with his brother at a car dealership so he knew where I worked. We got to Albuquerque, hospital was extremely busy that night. My partner and I were drafted into moving our patient to multiple floors, X-rays, MRI, the whole enchilada. We finally cleared the hospital at close to midnight after he was put into a room. After he was released he came by the car dealership and shook my hand and thanked me for what I did. I tried to tell him that I didn’t do much of anything, my partners did all the work. His exact words were “But you was there all the time” which I couldn’t deny. After that anyplace I would be in town he’d make sure to cove over and shake my hand and say “thank you”. He had the reputation around town as a hell raiser and I was told it was good to have him on my side so to speak. A number of years ago I heard that he passed while living on the streets, alcohol finally got to him. He was a Vietnam vet also. R.I.P. Jake. -------------------------------------—————— ————————--Ignorance is a powerful tool if applied at the right time, even, usually, surpassing knowledge(E.J.Potter, A.K.A. The Michigan Madman) | |||
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| Member |
That's very touching. Great story, thank you. Lover of the US Constitution Wile E. Coyote School of DIY Disaster | |||
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Member |
I met Muhammed Ali. He used to train at a camp in Deer Lake, PA. I worked maintenance summers at Reading (PA) airport, and he flew in and out of there. Got a call on the radio, "Muhammed Ali is in the terminal!", so we booked it up there. He gave me his autograph, which I misplaced years later. The thing that stands out in my mind is that when my 18 year old self shook his hand, my hand felt like a kids hand in his. I also met Matt, of Matt's Off-Road Recovery fame, a couple of years ago. Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet. - Dave Barry "Never go through life saying 'I should have'..." - quote from the 9/11 Boatlift Story (thanks, sdy for posting it) | |||
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