OOMBALA, [censored] am I glad you posted to this slightly out of date thread. Two reasons: 1. I liked your story and 2. I won't be alone telling my LATE tales.
Lets see, I'll be brief and pick out a few that were interesting or entertaining to me and hope they do something for y'all.
Flew to London with Farah Faucett (Majors) on same plane, created quite a stir at customs at Heathrow all the lady customs clerks were a twitter and wanted to "handle" Farah. She was dressed way down, minimal makeup, not as "nicely done" as her secretary, a little standoffish, and seemed apprehensive about crowds (probably for good cause). Not much to look at without makeup, wardrobe, etc.
Another London flight story: You know how sometimes someone will set off your alarms and make you ill at ease and suspicious. There was this guy on the flight that really made me nervous. Hijacker, thug, mafia enforcer, motorcycle tough with a shower, whatever, just really set off my internal alarms. I was travelling as was my normal situation on business with two passports. One is the regular blue one like all the American tourists carry and the other a red one (official Government business). My informal off the record instructions, don't laugh, were that in case of imminent capture, compromoise, highjack, skyjack or whatever to "lose" the red one (eat it, flush it, whatever) and show the blue one as official Government passports would likely earn you unwanted special attention from the bad guys.
Of course the red one gets you "front of the line" sudden service at any American embasy/consulate installation whatever. I was just short of ordering a drink of water to help wash down the red passport when suddenly my retarded pattern matcher locked in on the ID of the "bad guy". Seems he is an actor who specializes in playing big tough bad guys. I had seen him in counless movies. My subconscious recorded him as a "threat" but my conscious brain (I had a little left back then) didn't register him. I respected his privacy and didn't bother him.
I was nearly run down in the lobby of LAX by a big old bald guy, we weren't paying attention to each other. No harm done, we didn't go to the floor, and no one should have been bruised. He said sorry, I said sorry, we parted, and then the VOICE registered. Without the clothes, makeup, and maybe a big hat perhaps you wouldn't recognize Marion either, you know, John Wayne, from the movies.
On a sailboat trip to Catalina island with my wife and a friend (we lived on a sailboat for nearly 9 years) we were on a sailing and SCUBA outing. We were at the little village of Two Harbors at the isthmus where Catalina nearly becomes two islands to have dinner ashore. The next table over behind and to my left was occupied by a couple Holywood types I didn't recognize AND Natalie Wood. She was siting in one of those high backed wicker/reed/whatever queen looking chairs in regular street clothes and "normal" street makeup. Everyone was either oblivious to who she was or, like us, respected her privacy as no one approached them for autographs or whatever. She was sort of "holding court" and her suplicants were vying for top joke telling honors. I still cherish one of the jokes and tell it often. We left and went back to the boat (Pacific High) to sleep and get ready for the next morning's early dive.
The three of us dove our first tank near a reef with depths of up to about a hundred feet. My wife stayed in the dingy after her first tank but my bud and I had a cup of hot cocoa, changed tanks, and went again. There was a lot of unusual activity on the surface...a couple helicopters hovering and such. We thought it may have been some sort of SAR drill. Anyway, after lunch on board we weighed anchor and headed for San Diego. About 10 days later I finally figured it out. Natalie Wood was lost overboard shortly after we saw her and the choppers were definitely searching. Bummer. It would have definitely made diving unpleasant for my wife if she had seen Natalie floating past. Later, after gathering our composure my bud and I joked how we could have taken each others picture with Natalie on our knee and used our underwater slates to get an autograph. Later I met her brother in law (Wood) where he and I are neighbors with nearby recreational leaseholds down in Baja. They totally poo poo any idea that his brother (her husband) would have ever harmed her.
We used to have lunch every so often in the "sleazy bar" from the Tom Cruise movie, "Top Gun". We were ever alert for but unfortunately never saw Kelly McGillis.
My mom went to grade school with Gene Autry's wife.
Patrick
