PCBEEUSA - Freedom on the Web

  The “Cool Gent” makes history

Herb Kent "The Cool Gent" inducted into the Guiness Book of World Records

On December 5th, my wife Donna and I had the priveledge of attending a celebrity roast of radio legend Herb Kent “The Cool Gent.”

As a kid,  I remember listening to him on WVON on my little 2-transistor radio.  Actually, I bounced between WVON and WLS, enjoying music from “both sides of the tracks.”  These guys were all heroes to me.  Many years ago, when I was living in the South Suburbs, we were listening to Dick Biondi, whom I had listened to back in the 60′s, doing a live show from a car dealership.  He was still on the air after all these years, playing “golden oldies.”  We got to meet him and he even let my daughter and me announce a song on the air.  She got an autographed picture.

To complete this part of my bucket list, I needed to meet Herb Kent.

The roast was a great, nostalgic, fun time.  Attendees got a copy of his book.  I got mine autographed and had a photo taken.  One suprise of the evening, was when this young man from London joined Illinois State Governor Pat Quinn, Fox TV’s Robin Robinson, WYCC’s Deborah Crable and other celebs on stage as “Herbie Baby” was inducted into the Guiness Book or World Records as the oldest living, working dj in the world.

Wow.

And he is still broadcasting on V-103.  I understand that Dick Biondi is also still broadcasting.

Is that cool, or what?

A young girl was found murdered last week.  She had been reported missing days earlier and her family and many civic leaders are upset with police and the media because when she was reported missing, it was not handled properly.  No pictures on TV and apparently no Amber Alerts.  The suggestion is that, because she was Black, she was not given the same coverage.  Possibly.

Me?  I would rather have a chance to get my hands on the #$@!#%$ that killed her.  Kudos to Congressman Bobby Rush offering a reward for finding this person.

Six months ago, a young man tried to rob a convenience store in New York state.  The store owner got the drop on him and he found himself staring down the barrel of a rifle.  The robber to be got on his knees and begged forgiveness, saying that he desperately needed food for his family.  The owner gave him some food and $40 and sent him on his way.

Last week, the store owner received a letter.  It was from the young man.  He thanked him for his generousity and explained that things were going much better for him now.  Also in the envelope was a $50 bill.

So not all of the news in the world is bad.

I remember, as a kid, being as superstitious as everyone else.  I would avoid black cats, not walk under ladders and other crazy irrational things.  Never noticed whether I had better luck when I kept away from these things or not.  Just seemed to make sense to cover all bases–why take the chance?

I wasn’t the only one.  There seemed to be an official acceptance of superstition.  Many tall buildings did not have a 13th floor.  No one wanted an office or apartment numbered 13 anything.  Then there was Apollo 13.  Launched on the 13 minute of the 13th hour.  Whoa.

I almost believed in astrology for a short period of time, back in the 60′s and 70′s.  I recall where this one young lady, whom I liked a lot, correctly told me my astrological sign, based on her observations of me.  I have to admit, that impressed me more than a little.

Then, logic clicked in.  If you read my entries of a couple of months ago, you already know that my best friend was born the same day same year, and although we are similar in some ways, we’re also very different.  I have also always been a student of astronomy (yes, astronomy), and astrophysics.  I don’t claim to have any great understanding, but I just could not see how the placement of the planets on the moment of my birth could have a significant effect on my personality or the future events in my life.

As far as bad things happening on the 13th or whatever, well stuff happens when it happens.  If we think that Friday the 13th is bad news, we may, without realizing it, cause bad things to happen.  Our worries may get in the way of concentration or judgment.  The possibilities are endless.

Then, as my Christian faith and beliefs grew, the whole superstition thing; good luck, bad luck, just did not make any sense.    To quote Albert Einstein, “God does not play dice with the Universe.”

So, eventually, I found myself seeking out black cats, walking under ladders on purpose, “splitting” light poles and stepping on cracks in the side walk.  And I assure you, my mother’s back is fine.

It’s all a matter of perception.  Believe it or not, many good things happen on Friday the 13th.  Children are born, couples get married, fortunes are made.  It is a documented fact that the performance of the Stock Market is no different on Friday the 13th than any other day.

So, next Friday the 13th, don’t be  paraskavedekatriaphobic. Who knows?  It might just be your lucky day.

I attended the Chicago Urban League’s 48th annual Golden Fellowship this past weekend. Came close to and actually shook hands with some important people.

While sitting at our table, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn entered the room, just moments before he was announced. He waved and said hello to folks as he passed. I held out my hand and he shook it. I also got a chance to say hello to and shake the hand of legendary radio personality Cliff Kelly (I was actually interviewed by him a few years ago).

Got close to, but did not get to shake the hand of Illinois Congressmen Roland Burris.

I’ve mentioned before my celebrity page www.groupendeavors.com/steve where you can see photos of me posing with some famous people (including Mr, Kelly while being interviewed at the Operation Push Expo).

What I have have told few people about are the famous people I met over the years when I did not have a camera. Where here a partial list:

Legendary Chicago TV newscaster, the late Fayhe Flynn: Just happen to see him standing on the street. I said hello, he smiled and said hello back.

Richard M. Nixon: Between his time as Vice President and President.  It was at some luncheon I attended because I was an honor student in High School.  After he spoke, I had a chance to go up and meet him and shake his hand.

Patrick MacNee of the original Avengers:  Mr. MacNee was in town doing a play.  Stopped him on the street corner.  Typical British gentileman, he spoke to me briefly and shook my hand.  I think he appreciated the fact that someone actually recognized him.

Late comedian Sid Ceasar:  While working as a cable TV tech in the Drake Hotel, shared and elevator with him.  Very friendly.  Spent a few minutes lamenting the sorry state of comedy (bad language and dirty jokes).  This was in the late 1970′s.

Andrew Young:  I believe he was mayor of Atlanta at the time.  Happened to see his standing in the airport.  I walked up, said hello and shook his hand.

B. B. King:  This one is a little strange.  Again, I was working as a cable technician at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare.  I needed to get into a guest room to repair the equipment.  I asked the maid if the room was empty.  She did not speak very good english and apparently misunderstood me when she replied “yes.”  I entered the room with the master key and there, in the middle of the floor sat Blues Legend B. B. King, in his underwear sorting through his tapes.  I quickly apologized and backed out of the room.  He was very kind and accepted my apology.  If that wasn’t bad enough, the next evening we had tickets to see him perform at the Blue Max, a small, intimate club at the hotel.  I spent half the time hoping he would not recognize me.

More celebrity encounters in a later post.

I may surprise a few people that I am a very big fan of comedy.  I mean real comedy.  Puns.  Slapstick. Good clean humor.  I still watch the Honeymooners.  I have a collection of 3 Stooges shorts.  I still remember the day I met Sid Ceasar in the lobby of the Drake Hotel back in the 80′s. We talked for several minutes while he bemoaned the “potty mouth, drop your pants” humor that had become so popular.   One of my favorite films of all time is “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”  And I have been a big fan of Mel Brooks movies (at least up to “Silent Movie,” after that he kind of went off the deep end, I think).

I just read today where another great “Golden Age” funny man had passed on.  Soupy Sales died at 83.  Even some baby boomers may not remember Soupy.  I watch the old kinescopes on You Tube and I still laugh.  It was when TV was young and they sort of made it up as they went.  Soupy would improv and joke and you could hear the cameraman and director laugh.  It was Soupy and 3 puppets, White Fang, Black Tooth and Pookie.  And I loved them all.

What he was most famous for was the old pie in the face routine, that became a staple of slapstick comedy.  Truth be told, I always wanted to experience that.  I even wrote up a skit for my Sunday School class where I would get a pie in the face, but it never got off the ground. 

There’s one more for the bucket list.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to see the UniverSoul Circus here in Chicago.  It was as great as the first time I saw it a few years ago.  That first time, I was expecting a fun and entertaining African-American themed program, and it was.  But I was also impressed by the fact that it was a also just a great circus!

This morning, I awoke to the amazing news that our president had won the Nobel Peace price, only the third sitting president to do so.  In the many reports that I saw heard and read, no where was it mentioned that he was Black.  He is simply the President of the United States.  And we are all quite proud of him.

Just returned from the first annual Chicago TechExpo.  They had a raffle where they gave away, among other things, Nintendo Wii and other videogame consoles.  Of course it all brought back memories for me.  The first home video game that we owned was the ubiquitous “Pong.”  We played it so much that the image of the game was burned permanently into the TV screen (that’s what screen savers were invented to prevent.)

Even more interesting; in 1971, I was one of the first people to play the very first coin operated video game.  A monochrome “Asteroids” game, it was in a colorful, futuristic case, and was installed in the recreation center at IIT.

I remember the students being impressed with the technology more than with the actual game.  Hey, had to start somewhere!

In 1965, I was a sophomore at Crane High School in Chicago.  There were not a lot of us geeks there at the time.  I made acquaintance with another rather geeky young man named Leonard.  We soon realized that we had many interests in common, from chess and comic books to bowling and science fiction, so we became fast friends.  At some point we also discovered that we actually shared the same birthday, September 29th, the same year, 1950.  So we decided to celebrate our birthday together.  That first time, we probably had dinner and went bowling or something like that.

That was the start of a long standing tradition.  Except for a couple of years when Leonard was in the Army, and I was back home in college, we have celebrated our birthdays together (once I had a birthday party in my dorm room on campus and sent an audio recording of it to him, all the way to his base in Germany).  The tradition is that we do it alone, no wives or girlfriends, and our spouses have always been very understanding and respected that.  Sometimes we would go to a club or bar (that pretty much ended after we got married), usually we’d have a nice dinner, go bowling, go to a movie or find a quiet place to pay chess.  Then we would end the night reminiscing.

One year I got tickets to a murder mystery play that was an audience participation kind of thing.  Because I bought the tickets on the phone with my credit card, they actually knew my name and where I was sitting.  The setting of the play was supposed to be a dinner function in the basement of a church, and the characters kept thanking me for providing the meat for the meal.  I played along, of course.  To this day, I’m sure that the other people at the table thought we were part of the cast.

Tonight, for our 44th celebration, we went to see the movie “Surrogate” at the Hollywood Blvd. theatre in the southwest suburban Woodridge.  You sit in comfortable, individual chairs at a bar or table, and they serve you dinner while you watch the movie.  Great fun, and the movie was good too.

This year we turned 59, and we’re trying to come up with something special for our 60th next year.  Of course, as we get older, the outings get tamer.  Back in the day we’d stay out all night.  Tonight I was home by 10:00 PM.

I keep saying that one day I was going to compare birth certificates to see who was really older.

So, happy birthday to me and happy birthday to my buddy and brother Leonard.  God willing, we shall celebrate many more–together!

In this rarely seen footage, a 14-year-old Michael Jackson appears on TV’s Dating Game!

Hard to believe it’s the same person!

Found this through a really cute website called www.upchucky.com

In my lifetime, I have met a number of famous and important people.  Political figures, from congressmen to Chicago’s Mayor Daley; legends, like James Earl Jones; and several stars from Star Trek and Dr. Who, from James Doohan (Mr. Scott) to Tom Baker (Dr. Who # 4, the most famous of them all).  I also had a chance to meet Joan Higgenbotham, a young lady from Chicago who was a Space Shuttle astronaut. (See my celebrity page: www.groupendeavors.com/steve )

Today I trumped them all.  I shook hands with Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.  The second man to set foot on the moon.

And it almost didn’t happen.

I was taking advantage of a rare chance to sleep late when my dear wife came into the bedroom and told me that she had just heard on TV that “Buzz” Aldrin was going to be at the Adler Planetarium at 11:30 this morning.  I lay there debating.  Probably going to be hundreds if not thousands of people there.  At best, I might get to sit in the back of some auditorium while he spoke.  Was it worth the hassle?

An hour later I was up and dressed and gulping down breakfast.  This was, after all, “Buzz” Aldrin.  If I could get within 150 feet of him, I could get a good picture.

I took the Red Line subway to Roosevelt Road and got on the east bound Roosevelt bus.  Little did I know that the Roosevelt bus no longer went to the Planetarium.  Had to walk three blocks to get to a bus that did go there.

I arrived at the Adler, and got in line to buy an admission ticket.  $19.  Well, it was, after all, “Buzz” Aldrin.

I asked an attendant what ticket I would have to buy to see Mr. Aldrin.  She directed me to a special exhibit on Apollo, that had a big sign saying that it was closed until later in the day.  I asked a lady there who asked me if I was with the press.  I said no.  She told me that Mr. Aldrin would be making a brief appearance at the entrance to the exhibit in about 30 minutes.

So I went outside, walked around a bit and took some pictures.

Then it occurred to me, he probably was not there yet.  If I waited around I might get a shot of him before he entered the building.  I saw a couple of “important” looking people waiting out front, so I waited with them.

Soon, a black SUV pulled up and “Buzz” stepped out.  I got a quick shot of him getting out of the car.  As he was escorted to the side entrance I called his name from about 50 feet away.  Guess he didn’t hear me.

Inside, I was again told that he would be making an appearance soon.  So I waited.  An older Planetarium employee told me to be patient, that Mr. Aldrin would be there in 10 or 15 minutes.

“I’ve already waited 40 years,” I said. “A few more minutes certainly won’t hurt me.”

I mentioned that I was surprised that there were so few people here to see the astronaut.  Just me and a few people from the press.  He said that it was not supposed to have been announced on TV.  A couple of stations mistakenly released the information.  It was not supposed to be a public event.  Lucky me!

I was waiting patiently when a lady with a camera walked up to me and asked if this was where “Buzz” Aldrin was going to be.

“That’s what they tell me!” I said.

We chatted as we waited.  Her name was Denise, and she was a junior high astronomy schoolteacher visiting from California.  It was her first time at the Adler.   She had overheard someone say that Aldrin would be there.

For about 10 minutes we talked about Apollo 11 (she was a little impressed that I had watched it live as a teen), and astronomy (we mildly disagreed on whether Pluto should be considered a planet).

Suddenly, one of the ladies from the Planetarium approached us.  She acknowledged how long we had been patiently waiting.  She said that we would be allowed into the exhibit while Mr. Aldrin was there to take some pictures!

“Just don’t tell anybody else!” she said.

Lucky us!  Denise and I each agreed to e-mail whatever pictures we got to each other.

We saw “Buzz” enter the exhibit and take the reporters on a tour.

After a few minutes the lady came out again and told us to follow her.  As we walked through the museum, Denise and I decided that, if we could get a picture with “Buzz,” we take it together, with her camera, and she’d e-mail a copy to me.

We were hustled off to a doorway and asked to wait.  I suggested to Denise that we look as much like VIPs as possible (I was wearing my Johnson Space Center T-shirt, so I pretty much looked like a tourist anyway).

Then, he appeared.  We both tried to take pictures, but people were just hustling about too much, trying to get him out.

Then I remembered something my wife always told me.  You won’t get if you don’t ask.

“Mr. Aldrin?  If I may?”  I said as I held out my hand.

He turned, smiled slightly and shook my hand.

Denise tried to get the picture of it, but it was not to be.

After it was over, we had someone take a picture of the two of us and we parted ways.

I was halfway home when it actually hit me.  I had shaken hands with one of the most famous people who ever lived.  The second man to set foot on the moon.  An Apollo 11 astronaut.

That was cool!