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Dickbob
climber
Westminster Colorado
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Jun 25, 2013 - 06:39pm PT
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I had coffee with Stephen King every morning for a week. I punched the clock at the time at Flatiron Athletic Club in Boulder and one day, in walks the Man. No one at the front desk had any idea who he was but me. The first think he said was, “I would like to join for a week” and the front desk girls response was, “Would you like a tour or should I just take your money”. After working out he would always sit at the counter reading a novel and wait for his wife Tabby and and daughter Niomie. I finally approached him and asked if I could buy him a cup of coffee. He declined but an easy conversation began and every morning afterwards he acknowledged me and I set a cup of coffee in front of him and usually just gave him his space. My favorite quote from him was, “I started working out five years ago and I believe people would actually pay for the benefits if they did not have to actually do the work. For me It is the only time of the day that’s mine, so I cherish it” He was trying to tell me something I am sure. By the way, he still wore his high school letterman jacket, wore blue jeans and needed a new pair of shoes.
Called out to do warranty work for what I was told was a “sensitive” residential by the name of Bill Johnson in Woody Creek outside of Aspen. When I arrived I was taken down stairs and left alone to do my work on the brand new fitness equipment just installed the week before. I heard footsteps coming down the stairs behind me and I turned around and was face to face with Al Pacino. Supper cool. barefoot, wearing shorts and looking old. He casually quizzed me about what the problems with the equipment and then down the same stairs comes Tony Hawk. Right away Tony starts saying, “ What’s wrong with this stuff?” Al kept saying I don’t care, it’s her thing, not mine. Tony told him he should just return it and not mess around. Al seemed a little irritated with Tony and they both just left.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Jun 25, 2013 - 07:01pm PT
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What a thread, climbers meet interesting people.
Almost forgot, I lost a game to USSR Champion and International Grandmaster David Bronstein in Long Beach, and he signed my first edition of his book 200 Open Games. We had a nice chat, he was a real Old World Gentleman, a very gracious man. The book is my prize possession.
I didn't dare ask him about the match with Botvnnik.
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Michelle
Social climber
1187 Hunterwasser
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Jun 25, 2013 - 07:18pm PT
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17 years old, Alameda County Fair, trying to tap for beer. these guys are like, don't you know who we are? I replied, "uhm, should I?" The guys said, "We're Testament." "oh, cool, so about that beer..."
that's all I got.
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MisterE
Social climber
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Jun 25, 2013 - 10:28pm PT
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Pud for the win.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Jun 25, 2013 - 10:31pm PT
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I had a few beers with the mayor of Monrovia and his wife...Try beating that , eh..! RJ
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Griffin
Trad climber
Monterey, CA
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Aug 16, 2013 - 03:11pm PT
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Bump. Saw Clint Eastwood driving in the car next to me yesterday. He looked at me at the stoplight....I sh#t my pants.
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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Aug 16, 2013 - 06:21pm PT
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Well, there was that time BVB and I got arrested for trying to assassinate President Ford with a paper airplane, does that count? We didn't get close enough to see the whites of his eyes though...
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Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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Aug 16, 2013 - 07:20pm PT
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I grew up in NH and Aerosmith is from NH, my town actually. It's super rural, so everyone has an Aerosmith story.
Now, I don't like the band, but I taught Joe Perry's kid how to ski. Joe was a really nice guy, gave me a good tip.
I've run into Glen Plake multiple times all around the country. He's a class act. Helped me find my lost dog.
I've seen movie celebrities around from time to time, but I'm not the starstruck type.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Aug 16, 2013 - 07:36pm PT
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I grew up in Fontana, and everyone there then has at least one Sammy Hagar story.
I have more than some, because one of my pals, Jimmy, is Hagar's nephew. ( Sammy's sister, Bobbie, is Jimmy's mom )
One night we were gathered at Jimmy's house. Sammy was there for a TV party. Sammy had just left Montrose, and was on TV ( Midnight Special, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, or something similar ) with the new band he was headlining. Bill Church ( bassist ) was there too.
After watching them on TV, us kids decided to showcase our musical abilities too. So we sang some primary school protest songs ( "glory glory halalughiea, teacher hit me with a ruler", etc )
After we were finished, Sammy said we were hired if we wanted a spot in his band. Of course, he was joking.
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chill
climber
between the flat part and the blue wobbly thing
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Aug 16, 2013 - 08:00pm PT
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Sat next to the Governor of Idaho (Cecil Andrus) in a Denny's. Now thats some prime celebrity sighting there :)
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Aug 16, 2013 - 08:07pm PT
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Come to Against the Stream Sangha in Santa Monica any morning at 7 for meditation. You'll see scads of stars and big shots - making the coffee, putting out the cushions/zaffffffus, sweeping up afterwards. Then we all - regular folk and luminaries - go and live our lives, muddling along . . .
One of the exercises for those having a problem with there being "stars" is to make them go fetch their autographs. That's a pride buster every time, and pride, as they say, is the turd in the punchbowl.
JL
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pud
climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
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Aug 16, 2013 - 08:29pm PT
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I was tooling down PCH on my brand new 1974 RD250 when a cager made a left in front of me almost hitting me.
I pulled in behind him at the gas station he'd turned into and he got out and kind of weaved over to me.
He was shaking and really nervous. He tells me he didn't see me and was really sorry. He tried to light a cig and was shaking so badly I took the matches and lit it for him.
Then I realized it was Gary Burgoff . "Dude!! you're Radar!!" I say.
I told him not to worry. It happens all the time and that I generally expect it.
He calmed down a little and stumbled back to his car.
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SicMic
climber
two miles from Eldorado
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Aug 16, 2013 - 10:14pm PT
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Sold a golf bag to Farrah Fawcett (while I was working in a sporting goods store) in N. Holly. Rode the chair lift and made a run with JC Killy in Vail.
All the famous women I slept with made me sign a no-tell.
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pud
climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
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Aug 17, 2013 - 12:11am PT
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Hey pud did he really have a wooden hand?
Never heard that one.
It would explain his fumbling with the matches.
He had a good buzz on as well.
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dougout
Mountain climber
Palo Alto, CA
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I last saw Galen Rowell running up the Yosemite Falls trail in 1998. He would have been about 58 then and was in amazing shape. Probably like many of you all, I knew him well as a fixture around IR before his great fame never spoiled him.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sheeit, I've spooned with Jim Wickwire in a snow cave. Jess sayin'...he didn't snore.
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roadman
climber
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Worked in plumbing at McGukins Hardware in Boulder and saw Jon Krakauer walk through...He had just put out Into thin Air. I was a major fanboy and no one, i mean non of the old geezers I worked with gave 2 shits about who he was or what hump of dog sh#t he walked up...
I went over and introduced myself as he was shopping for a new grill. He was super cool and I blabbed on about something I forget what. After a few minutes i took off to eat lunch and he went on to write a few more best sellers.
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Woody the Beaver
Trad climber
Soldier, Idaho
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I accidentally had lunch with jazz piano master Marian McPartland around 1975 or so; the diner was crowded and we had to share a table about the size of a silver dollar. It was pretty neat. She was in SLC for a week as the artist in residence at the summer jazz institute at the University, and I'd snuck in to a long improv session the day before where she riffed for a wandering 20 minutes on "Mr. Bojangles," of all things, and brought it home for a stupendous finish. I was awestruck, and so the next day, having lunch with the Master, I was starstruck. To the point that my nose started running copiously with admiration. Didn't want to snort or blow loudly, with Marian McPartland genteely eating her salad about six inches away. Very stressful, trying to inhale discreetly to lift the snot back up into my skull, etc. But she was totally nice to me, even though I couldn't figure out what to say in between snot lift gasps. Wonderful piano-playing. I was smarter and more refined for weeks afterward.
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Richard Dreyfus smoking a doobie in his Mini Cooper on the bay bridge the other day.
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Todd Eastman
climber
Bellingham, WA
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I was hitching from Lake Placid to the Gunks to climb in mid-70s. At the Albany tollbooth for the Thruway, along with my pack and rope, I am holding a big sign that says New Paltz. It is dark out but there is always traffic there. A big gold Lincoln pulls up, I briefly note the New York plates with "FP-1" as the identification. The door opens and it is Floyd Patterson, his wife, and kids coming back from Vermont.
Floyd says "I saw the rope and figured you are going down to climb along the Carriage Roads."
I said that "yes" I was and he said he lived nearby and described how, when he was boxing, he liked to do his road work on the Carriage Roads and that he liked seeing the climbers. I chatted with him and his wife and in no time I was dropped off at the old Grand Union in New Paltz. I thanked them and he put out his hand for a shake, that hand had seen some action.
He struck me as a good man. I later heard of his work with the boxing commission with poor kids and what an amazing ambassador of his sport he was. While several of my New Paltz friends said running into Floyd was pretty common, it was for me an amazing experience.
Several years later I met Ingemar Johansson, one of Floyd's rivals for the heavyweight crown when he came to Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont where I was teaching XC skiing. He wanted to race in the Sweden's Vasaloppet, a 90 K hurt dance across central Sweden. He was 20 years past his prime but still a national hero. His handlers decided to take him to rural America and whip him into shape away from the temptations of the fast life. Judging from the training he was doing, I can't imagine old Ingemar fared too well in the race but he was not going to starve with with girth he carried.
Two very different men linked in history and mainly remembered through black and white photographs
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