Our 15 Minutes

Then Vice President George Bush, 1988
Then Vice President George Bush, 1988

So the other day I was trying to rattle off a list of all the famous people I have met. I was really struggling to think of their names, and whether or not they were really famous. Charles Kuralt, Wilford Brimley, Ralph Nader, Erin Moriarty, Reba McEntire, Fran Tarkenton, Brian Bosworth, Jeremy Shockey, Larry Linville, Davey Jones, Vincent Price, Hoyt Axton, Harry “The Cat” Brecheen, Rudy Giuliani, Barry Switzer. I know; it’s a pretty weird list. I’m sure there are more.

I guess the most historically significant figures I’ve met would be George Bush Sr., and Mikhail Gobrachev. At the time I met and photographed Bush in 1988, he was running for President, and was spouting his now famous lie, “No new taxes,” which he actually said in my presence.

Rudy Giuliani signs a child's shirt in Ada's North Hill Shopping Center in 2021.
Rudy Giuliani signs a child’s shirt in Ada’s North Hill Shopping Center in 2021.

Here’s a neat piece of trivia from that day: when going through security checks, I was searched by a DEA agent, and an Army Intel agent.

Gorbachev was in Ada in 2005 on a guest speaker tour. Oddly, though he is a routine guest on these tours, he has not learned any English at all, and speaks entirely through a translator. We followed him all day to document his visit. In this photo, he is greeted by Mike Halverson, who used to rent airplanes to me.

Mikhail Gobrachev, 2006
Mikhail Gobrachev, 2006

2 Comments

  1. Since as you know, I am quite star struck, I really enjoyed this blog very much. Famous folks are neato. My friend Stephanie had a blog about famous folks she met too. So I’ll do one. Maybe tonight, but sometime this weekend. Okay, I gotta go. My car is broke down, and I have an appointment with my probation officer 40 miles away, so I’m gonna have to ride my horse. Actually I’m watchin the news and they just showed a story about a guy who did that.

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