Take this as a brief history of my life. In no way is it
complete, my life has been too strange and wild to call this complete. I just
want to give you an idea of some of the people I have met along the way.
I have been lucky in my life to able to experience some
things that many people dream about. As a child I grew up three doors from
Firestone Country Club in
Growing up around the country club we got used to many celebrities walking through while we were there doing what kids did on a golf course. With Bobby Nichols as pro it was not uncommon for his friends to show up, likes of Jerry Reed and Glenn Campbell.
One day after playing golf in the morning in the junior golf league, a group of us were having our lunch, burgers and chocolate shakes that were so thick you ate them, not drank them. A man walked up to our table and asked us how we were doing and if he could take our one open seat. We all said yes because we were taught to respect all adults, especially at the club. That man was Robert Goulett, the singer. Talked golf and ate lunch and thought nothing of it, until we told our parents when we got home.
In the "old days" at country clubs, if you wanted to practice, you had to bring your own balls and go pick them up. This applied to pros as well as amateurs. Times were if a pro came in, they would grab a kid to shag balls for them to make life easier. One day a friend of mine and I were shagging balls for a guy. He would hits these balls to us curving them this way and that, each one landing at our feet. After a while we started screwing around and he was hitting balls of trees from the practice area to the first fairway and we were catching them in our hats, Baseball style. Being the lousy baseball player that I am, I missed one and it landed on top of my ankle drooping me to the ground. I was laughing more that crying about my own stupidity. We later moved to the putting green and got a tip that I use to this day of using the writing to line the ball up in the direction that you want to hit the ball. That man was Bruce Fleisher, star of the Senior Tour, and a truly nice guy. Bruce, I pray that you over come the health problems that have come your way so that you can get back to playing golf and enjoying life.
One year the local tournament, the American Golf Classic was
moved to Firestone's North course. I was in my teens and typical of teens of
that time with long hair and ratty jeans. While watching the players a man
walked up next to me and asked if I knew anything about this course. I turned
and said "Yes, Sir, I do. I play here as a member." That man was Jim McKay of
ABC Sports. He wore his bright yellow blazer that ABC commentators wore. We
walked around the golf course and talked about the different holes. Which were
easy and which might have an impact on the outcome of the tournament. After a
while I heard a voice say, "Hi, Jim", and he returned that greeting. It was Bob
Toski, a pro golfer from
In the late sixties there was a major assault on to capture the land speed record. Each of the major tire companies had their man. Goodyear had Craig Breedlove and Firestone had Art Arfons. The Arfons shop was less than a half mile from the elementary school that I went to and as he fired up the jet engine of the Green Monster, we all heard it loud and clear. Art did capture the record and of course Firestone was taking every chance to promote that their tires were on the LSR car.
Some of the guys from Art's shop came into my familys hardware store to buy parts and we did a lot of business with Firestone, one day my dad asked if I wanted to see the car up close. I had only seen it riding by on the school bus, of course I did. Firestone had a photo shoot scheduled and arrangements were made for us to go. Now this was taking place in the shadow of Goodyear Aerospace right next to the blimp hanger where the blimps were built. I got to see the car, sit in the car and meet Art. Thrill for a kid.
As I entered junior high school, which was right next to my
previous school, we were meeting the "new kids" from the other schools of the
district. One of those was Tim Arfons, Art's youngest son. Tim and I became
friends and still see each other from time to time. When Art started drag
racing we went to the track together and hung out in the pits. When Art built
the Super Cyclops, which had second seat so that people could go for rides at
285 mph in a quarter mile, I decided that I had to go for a ride. Tim went, by
god, I wasn't afraid to do this. I
finally got permission and we set a time. That ride never happened, a couple
weeks before my scheduled ride, Art crashed in
About ten years ago the Akron Beacon Journal did a series on back and white relations with in the community here. That series won them a Pulitzer Prize. I was one of the people interviewed for this. Who says you only get fifteen minutes of fame?
I was invited to an album premier for Ian Hunter's Cleveland Rocks album. There was Lots of free food and drink. After the concert my girlfriend at the time and I were walking out. She was a waitress at the hotel they were staying at. Ian walks up to us and asks us to have dinner with the band. We turned him down but said we would meet them back at the hotel later. As the night wore on we eventually made it to the hotel and up to the floor they were on. We met up with one of the backup player and then went down the hall to another room.
I was in a rock and roll heaven when we walked through that door. We were in Ian Hunter's room. Also in that room were. Ellen Foley ( female voice on Meatloaf's Paradise by the Dashboard Light), Mick Ronson, guitar player with David Bowie on the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, and David Johansen of the New York Dolls and later Saturday Night Live. As we talked, we started talking about shows that we had seen and I brought up one that I was sure that they had forgotten. Years before I had seen the Dolls and Mott the Hopple at a local stadium. Surprise, they remembered doing that show together.
That conversation when on until the wee hours of the morning
and we talked about a lot of thinks. Some how the subject of playing poker came
up. At the time a group of us had a regular game which was to be the next
night. I invited them, just to be nice, figuring that there was no way they
would want to play. They said yes. I
agreed to pick them up the next night and get them there but a phone call from
their manager telling them that they had to be in
While I was attending college I studied theater. My major was in lighting design but I also did sets, costumes and sound. My main professor at Purdue was a man by the name of Lee Watson. Now that name will mean nothing to most of you but what Lee had done through his career has touched all of you in some manner. Lee was the first to bring rear screen projects to the Broadway stage in the original production of "Diary of Anne Frank". He also did studies in early TV to find out how fast a camera reacted to changes in light- 3 seconds is the fastest and that still holds today. I worked as an assistant to him on projects for the Cincinnati Ballet and was written up in a lighting design trade magazine for lighting, to his design, the set model for photographing.
I recently met Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay. I could only think of one thing to say to him as he shook my hand. "Thank you, sir, for your service to your country".
OOPS! I almost forgot the most important person that I have very met in my life, my son. I knew that he would be special from the first time we toughed each other. He was only a few minutes old and reached up and took my finger and rapped his hands around it in a perfect golf grip. True father son bonding. He has been the light of my life and has stuck with me through everything. He will turn out to have a special impact on this world someday. Kevan, I love you and we will get to the top together with the love of God and family.
Andy Warhol said that everyone gets their fifteen minutes of
fame. I have been lucky to have much more than that.
