My first story falls more in the category of “I knew him when” than it does “a brush with the famous.” In 1986/87, I was living in Lafayette, Louisiana and supplemented my day job tending bar at this little neighborhood joint that I had been hanging out in for years. One of the main attractions of this little bar was that they had live music - of the country-rock persuasion - 6 nights a week. One of the local bands that played there had this adorable lead singer with brooding eyes, long hair, a cowboy hat that shadowed most of his face and a great voice reminiscent of George Jones - that lead singer was Sammy Kershaw. In the fall of 1987, I moved to New Hampshire and lost track of Sammy – I don’t mean to imply that we were friends; we were just acquaintances who worked at the same place, I mean that I lost track of him musically – and found out a year or so later that he had given up music entirely.
Jump forward to 1990…..I’m working in a doctor’s office in New Hampshire and one of my friends/coworkers shared my enjoyment of country music, so we had the radio in our space tuned to a country station. One day a song caught my attention – the voice sounded very familiar, but I couldn’t place it. So I listened until the end of the song, hoping that the DJ would offer the singer’s name. Sure enough, the DJ said it was Sammy Kershaw singing Cadillac Style. Well I was stunned and proceeded to tell my friend/coworker that I knew this guy. She didn’t believe me until I came in the next day with some pictures. By then he had cut off the hair, lost the hat, and went on to be quite popular throughout the 90s with several hits.
Ironically, a few years later, my mom was on her way back to Louisiana after visiting me in New Hampshire and was on the same plane as Sammy Kershaw between Nashville and Lafayette. Lafayette has a very small airport and really not a very busy one, at that. While waiting for the baggage, she happened to be standing right next to him and so she said hi and went on to say that she was sure he wouldn’t remember her from his Checkmate (that was the name of the bar) days, but that he might remember her daughter, Janice. He said he did remember me and asked how I was doing (she claimed that he couldn’t have been just being polite, because he described me and some accurate memories of our time at the Checkmate). Their conversation went on as they walked out of the terminal. He walked up to this Limo that was waiting for him and asked Mom if she needed a ride. She of course already had a ride, so he told her to make sure and tell me hello and they went their separate ways.
My other brush with the famous happened in 1967. We were living in Tucson, Arizona, next door to a man who worked at Old Tucson as a stunt man. For those of you not familiar, Old Tucson is a movie studio/theme park, where many western movies and TV shows were/are filmed. One of those TV shows was the High Chaparral – it was one of my favorite shows. We used to go out there with our neighbor and watch the filming.
On one occasion we attended a rodeo where the stars of the show were appearing. We sat in the VIP area with them. Leif Erickson (Big John Cannon) and Linda Cristal (Victoria) didn’t have much to do with us beyond the introduction pleasantries, but Cameron Mitchell (Buck), Mark Slade (Billy Blue) and Henry Darrow (Manolito) sat with us and chatted.
I had the biggest crush on "Manolito" – which some might find odd since Mark Slade was the teen idol of the show – I guess even at five years old, I was a nonconformist. And even then, I knew what I liked…..tall, dark and handsome (Mark was not so tall, dirty blonde and handsome) :D
Well, as our Jenney would say, “If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother!” – Yes, my mom embarrassed the heck out of me by telling Henry that he was my favorite. He spent the rest of the day teasing me, buying me cotton candy and just giving me a lot of attention, which I adored, but that didn’t remove the embarrassment! Mark Slade was very nice, too. Come to find out, he was the same age as my dad (27, at the time) and they grew up in the same town of Danvers, Massachusetts. Their paths never crossed as youngsters, but they were able to reminisce about places and things and had a great time with that. And Cameron?…..Cameron was just funny – he kept us all in stitches.
Times out at Old Tucson were definitely fun times – hmmm, wonder if the curtains my mom made for the saloon are still there. No, I’m sure they’re probably long gone
