Monday, August 22, 2022

Going Fangirl

I took this picture at a motel I used to work at. Originally I captioned it "If he doesn't stop staring at me I'm gonna cut him"




I've met a few famous individuals in my life. IMO these are the highlights:


I met and got a photo with Mr. Greenjeans and the puppet Mr. Moose from Captain Kangaroo when I was 7-8 years old. The photo is nowhere to be found now.

This one is wild! When I was 13 these two guys performed at my Junior High. I got their autographs and later discovered one of them became my coworker at the ABC affiliate in Springfield, MO 12ish years later. Wayne Milnes would play Sammy B. Goode and I would be his Audio Technician. He was a busy man through his life and worked all over Branson, MO including Silver Dollar City where we also crossed paths when I was 15 when he played skits as the judge. I had a photo but lost that one in the memento box crime I'll talk about in a bit. He was an incredibly talented man and a great guy may he rest in peace.

While at the same TV station (KSPR) I got to put a microphone on John Goodman and lightly chat with him. He was in town for a telethon. The best part is this put me 2 degrees from Kevin Bacon in the game Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon! They've been in 5 movies together.

Now, at this point I've led you to my "fan girl" moment. After KSPR-TV, I went back to radio. This would have been around 1990. The station, KLTQ (Q-96) FM sponsored a concert with singers/bands from the 60's and 70's. The MC was Wolfman Jack from movies (does American Graffiti ring a bell?) and for me most importantly the late night TV show "The Midnight Special" that was broadcast through my teen years. The GM of the station asked me if I wanted to meet him. I said sure, and the moment I saw him just sitting in a chair relaxing before the show this SQUEAL rose out of my throat and I started shaking. WOLFMAN JACK WAS RIGHT THERE! WOLFMAN JACK! RIGHT THERE! SITTING IN A CHAIR AND NOW LOOKING SLIGHTLY ALARMED... I tried to calm down and asked him to sign the T-shirt in my hands which he did. But the BAD part is every time I've mentioned this no one seems to understand. Actually I was a bit surprised at my reaction but I'm not the least bit ashamed at going total fan girl. It was Wolf-freaking-man-OMG-JACK! The bad part is I didn't get a photo of us together to lose later. Damn it! But cheer up! I did lose the T-shirt. Actually it was stolen out of a U-Haul when I was packing to move by myself across town. The whole box of demo tapes, mementos that included my autograph book from Junior High, my picture of Wayne as the judge at SDC, and my music cassette collection swiped out of the back. People suck, except Wolfman Jack. Howl for the Wolfman!

No comments: