I've had my share of celebrity encounters, most of them when I was in college, oddly enough. From 1981 through 1984 I was in the Princeton Triangle Club. My senior year, a freshman by the name of Brooke Shields was also in the club, and while we weren't more than acquaintances we occasionally bantered. I missed a chance to meet Jimmy Stewart one Reunions weekend, but as I mentioned some years ago on the event of his death, Peggy and I ended up friends with Clark Gesner, the writer of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, who was also a Triangle alum. Michelle Robinson (now Obama) and I travelled in adjacent, very slightly intersecting social circles during the years we were both living in the same residential college, although it probably doesn't count as she was a pre-celebrity at that point. And those are only the ones I'm certain of -- it's possible that I had encounters with David Duchovny, Jeff Bezos and other now-famous names, but I couldn't tell you at this late date.
However, the event in my life closest to BYapes' story took place during spring break of my freshman year. A high school friend of mine -- the only other grad from my class to get into an Ivy League school -- was going to Yale, and I went up to New Haven to see him. Of course, that was the year that Jodie Foster was also a freshman at Yale. Saturday morning we're walking across a quad while talking, passing people going the other way, and Brian says, "Bob, that girl we just passed, that was Jodie Foster!" I look back and see a retreating head of blonde hair and think, "oh well, there goes my chance to catch a glimpse of her."
The next afternoon, I'm leaving the campus for the train station, talking to Brian as we walk through an arch out to the street. I'm not looking where I'm going and wham! I walk right into someone. I back up, muttering apologies, and realize that I've just come yea-close to bumping noses with Jodie Foster. Which just makes me even more flustered. We do the usual little "both try to get out of each other's way" dance before we manage to actually do so, and she heads on into the campus, while I continue out onto the street and my friend Brian laughs at me.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
However, the event in my life closest to BYapes' story took place during spring break of my freshman year. A high school friend of mine -- the only other grad from my class to get into an Ivy League school -- was going to Yale, and I went up to New Haven to see him. Of course, that was the year that Jodie Foster was also a freshman at Yale. Saturday morning we're walking across a quad while talking, passing people going the other way, and Brian says, "Bob, that girl we just passed, that was Jodie Foster!" I look back and see a retreating head of blonde hair and think, "oh well, there goes my chance to catch a glimpse of her."
The next afternoon, I'm leaving the campus for the train station, talking to Brian as we walk through an arch out to the street. I'm not looking where I'm going and wham! I walk right into someone. I back up, muttering apologies, and realize that I've just come yea-close to bumping noses with Jodie Foster. Which just makes me even more flustered. We do the usual little "both try to get out of each other's way" dance before we manage to actually do so, and she heads on into the campus, while I continue out onto the street and my friend Brian laughs at me.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.