Category: Celebrities

My first exposure to Dick Gregory was when I bought a book in the early 1970’s called Breaking It Up! The Best Routines of the Stand-Up Comics.  Several years later, I picked up a copy of his album The Light Side: The Dark Side where he talked about his political career including a run for president in the 1968 election as a write-in candidate for the Freedom and Peace Party.    Although I was a collector of comedy albums, this would be the only Dick Gregory album I would buy.  Part of the reason for this was his albums were very hard to find.  And even though this album was very funny, the political and social issues he discussed made it one that I wouldn’t listen to as often as my favorite comedy albums. 

Several years ago, I was involved in a training program at work where I had to travel to Flint, Michigan several times a year. I spent a full week in the Flint area during each trip, weekends included.  Another person from our facility was in the program at the same time and we traveled together.  We traveled by shuttle bus back and forth between the airport and the cabins where we stayed and the training took place.  This story takes place on what was probably our third of six trips to Flint. We had completed that week and training and were riding the shuttle bus back to the airport.  I was reading something during our short trip and wasn’t paying attention to anything at the airport when we arrived.  Before our shuttle bus could stop, my traveling companion said, “Look, there’s that guy that I don’t like.” I looked up expecting to see someone from our training program which would have been odd because my friend liked practically everyone in the program.  I couldn’t imagine him seeing anyone else that he knew at the Flint airport other than the people in our sessions.  I didn’t see any of our fellow trainees outside the airport.  I finally saw film director Michael Moore, maker of Roger and Me and Bowling for Columbine among other films.  I knew that my friends were more conservative than mine and I could understand why he would say what he did.  I am a fan of Michael Moore and was excited to see him.  What better place to encounter him than his hometown?

Woody Widenhofer was an assistant for the Pittsburg Steelers from 1973-1983 when they were having many of their trips to the Super Bowl.  He was also head coach for Vanderbilt University from 1997-2001. So, it was no surprise to end up on a plane with him when I was flying out of Nashville on a trip during the years he was there.  I didn’t immediately recognize him and wasn’t absolutely sure it was him until after I got off the plane. 

This trip occurred in May of 2001. I was travelling back to Nashville from Oklahoma City.  There were changes to my itinerary which ended up routing me through Atlanta even though I wasn’t originally scheduled to go there.  But this was a better alternative than not getting home when I had planned.  It’s no surprise to see celebrities when travelling through airports, especially when you go through larger, busier cities.  This trip resulted in the most celebrity encounters that any trip. 

When I was in elementary school, I took voice lessons from a man named Joe Kincaid.  Joe gave these lessons at the school where I went.  He was also the band director.  There were many kids from the area that took lessons from him, several that didn’t attend our school. He had success with several soloists and vocal groups at area talent shows. Several times during the year, he would put on shows with all his students.  The shows would usually begin and end with a larger production number where all the students sang together.  Around 1970 when I was in second grade, the show included the medley Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In from the musical Hair. The recording by The 5^th Dimension was a big hit at that time. Everyone in the show dressed in hippie costumes for the production.

When I was a little kid, I watched several kids shows on TV that featured cartoons.  One of these was called The Happy Hal Show.  It was hosted by a man named Hal Miller.  He had an odd puppet called L’il Bow that he talked with on the show as he introduced the cartoons.  One of the reasons he appealed to kids like me was his pleasant demeanor. He also talked a lot about toys.  In addition to hosting his show, he also ran a chain of toy stores in Memphis. There was even a rack of “Happy Hal” toys at the pharmacy where my family went in the small town where I lived about 2 hours away from Memphis.  I remember most of the toys on this rack were small enough to ask for as an occasional treat during a shopping trip.  I don’t remember anything on the rack being big enough to make a Christmas wish list.  I remember the Happy Hal Toy Rack probably better than I remember his show.