Daniel, I Still Have a Gift

            

Wherever you go, you are likely to run into someone who is famous, what you do with that, is up to you, but I recommend you do not follow my lead.

         When Daniel was still here on Earth I remember telling him about a "gift" I appeared to have. It wasn't songwriting, writing books, singing or anything else I once did.  It's a more unusual gift than that.  I have the gift of either offending, insulting, injuring or annoying famous people.  I assure you, it's not deliberate.

                 I can't remember how long I have been this way, but I know I was this way in college.  I remember hanging up the coat of Eric Weissberg (of "Dueling Banjos fame) when he came to a recording studio very late one night to work on a project a friend of mine was producing. It was very late and I was tired.  Eric handed me a very heavy down coat that had tiny feathers protruding from the fabric. I made some joke about it that fell flat, and he groaned at me, as I hang up the coat.

                 I think it was about a year later, that I was invited to the apartment of a close friend in New Jersey, in Plainfield, and he was having a party. He introduced me to a fellow in a wrinkled blue shirt and told me he was a prince from Saudi Arabia. I was younger than my college friends and I didn't want to appear gullible. I also thought that no self respecting prince would go to my friend's red carpeted curried apartment, and so to appear not so taken in, when introduced to the prince, I said, "Nice to meet you. I'm Princess Grace".  The Prince was gracious, but my friends looked at me strangely.   Years later, while pregnant with one of my children, and sitting in a doctor's office, I saw the Prince again, in a picture in an article about him in People Magazine.  So he really was a prince, I thought.

                 Once, while we were moving from a suburban home in Virginia to a rural one, we made a stop at a full service gas station with restaurant just off the interstate. The kids and I were moving boxes of toys and gardening tools that day, and we were all dressed in work clothes. We stopped at the gas station in order to stop for ice cream. Daniel was only about one. I noticed a man, dressed in casual black a couple of tables away, eating a large portion of chicken strips without any sauce staring at us. I am sensitive to the gaze of others and I wondered why this person was watching us so intently as I talked to the kids. He continued to stare, and I started back, as he ate his chicken strips and I ate my small chocolate cone. He looked familiar, but not in a way I could place.  Finally, my son Matt, who was about seven said, "Did we pack my copy of Edward Scissorhands?"    "Yes, I'm sure we did", I responded.  With that, the man in black pulled his black ball cap down over his head a bit farther, and stopped his stare.  It took me a couple of seconds to realize that he was indeed Johnny Depp, though he was thinner and smaller than I had imagined he would be.  The kids had recognized him, but I had not. Apparently our family had been interesting.  Then, he got up and got cash from the ATM, and went out to his rental car with a Louisiana plate, and drove off.  The kids could have told him hello and told him they enjoyed his work, but I was simply noticing that someone was watching my kids.

                Once, when we lived hear Richmond, Virginia, I took the kids to the Borders Books and Music Store.  As I pulled in to the parking space, Tim Kaine who ran for Vice President in the last election, walked across the parking space. I hit the brakes with both feet in order not to strike the man I recognized as the Mayor of Richmond at the time. He realized that I nearly hit him, and he waved an apologized.  I nearly killed or maimed Richmond's mayor, the future governor and Hillary Clinton's presidential running mate, all in one fell swoop.My family and I ran in to him a couple of times afterward in Charlottesville, and if he remembered our near miss, he never said anything.
 
                 Later, when Adam was practicing as a speed skater, in Richmond, Virginia, a young woman was watching him during practice. I said to Adam quietly, "Wow, that woman looks like a smaller version of Oksana Baiul."     She apparently heard me, and scowled.  Later that afternoon, we learned that she was indeed Oksana Baiul. I had done it again!   Adam later left speed skating as a consequence of Crohn's disease.

                I am afraid I have not changed my ways. I spent a couple of hours this week, on and off talking to Zac from the Zac Brown Band, on twitter on it's direct message feature.  It was a great conversation but I really believed that I was talking to someone assigned by Zac's publicist to talk to fans.  Eventually, I think the man became a little annoyed because I didn't believe it was actually him.  Finally, we resolved that I should ask him a test question. I had remembered on an interview that he had a favorite dish to serve at the "Meet and Greet" before certain concerts. I asked it, and he knew at once. Okay, I have to concede that the person I spoke to, probably was Zac Brown.

               I think there is probably only once when I was as gracious to a famous person as I should be, and that is because she seems to be as nice and as gracious as her voice would imply, and that would be Alison Krauss.  But I suppose I still could inadvertently annoy her next time.

               As a writer of now, six books, I do still occasionally make contact with famous people. There is a down side to this. Some of them are very nice people and deserve the accolades they have. Others, are not nice people at all. I am learning that one can admire the work of certain people, and realize quite completely that some of them are pond scum personally !