Lines with Madame
Somewhere around 1978-1979, my roommate, Michael, dated Wayland Flowers. I cannot narrow it down more than that because it was the '70s. So many fun and outrageous things happened when I lived at Tahoe that it's impossible to put them all into any sort of chronological order. We didn't have phones that time-stamped our lives. Hell - we didn't have phones except for the single landline in our 4-person/4-bedroom/2 bathroom home - with the lake view before they built the condo's in out back yard... (Another story for another day!)
Michael had gone down to Reno for a party or something and met Wayland after a show. They hit it off rather quickly and Michael ended up in Reno quite a bit. I went down with him one night to catch his show - it was hysterically funny - and it was party-hearty after.
Wayland was hysterical off stage as well as on. He could jump in-and-out of character at the drop of a feather boa. While Madame did stay in her dressing room, her persona was liable to come up anywhere Wayland went.
He was really a very sweet guy from the brief time I saw him - and he had really good drugs. Always a plus!
They didn't date long - Wayland was a celebrity who was constantly on the road and Michael definitely wasn't looking to settle down, either.
He was cute, though...
Meeting Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter is my most favorite President from the time I was able to vote - my first Presidential vote was for George McGovern absentee ballot from the USS Ranger CVA-61. (That boat will probably be a recurring theme in these stories!)
I started working in hotels in 1976 and I had seen my share of famous people. At the Hyatt Lake Tahoe, they held "Hyatt Celebrity Tennis" every year and I met Lorne Green, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Michael Landon... and a score of others whose names are among the brain cells I have destroyed over time... There was always a so-and-so staying at the Lakeside suites... I'm not generally a star-struck individual - meeting celebrities really wasn't a big deal.
From Tahoe to Boston and The Hyatt Regency Cambridge. Because of its proximity to Harvard and MIT - as well as Mass General - lots of politicians stopped by. I saw Reagan - did not meet him, fortunately - and a Saudi Prince reserved an entire floor for a month because his mother was undergoing treatment at Mass General Hospital. Probably about 35 rooms. I met Rodney Dangerfield who was doing a show for Harvard, one night - he was really funny and really foul-mouthed. I loved it!
One afternoon I was by myself taking the service elevator up to the Spinnaker - the revolving rooftop restaurant/lounge - when the doors opened and Jimmy Carter and two Secret Service guys stepped in.
He smiled, shook my hand, and asked me how I was doing. I stood there gaping, tongue-tied, and sputtering. It was one of those Geemrpresidentitissogreattomeetyou - heart pumping a mile a minute, overwhelmed, to say the least. Not that I could have actually articulated that at that moment... Red faced, palms sweating... I'm sure he was impressed.
He really was a great man.
My 21st Birthday
Twenty-One. The magic age. The rite of going out and getting sloshed - legally - for the first time. I spent my 21st birthday floating a couple of miles off the California coast.
We had been back from Viet Nam for about a month, homeported at NAS Alameda - right across the bay from home. I was back to almost being a civilian with a Navy job. I was even working at Pirro's and collecting a paycheck from Barry, as well. It was rough.
There was no air wing on board at this point - they were all back at Lemore, Miramar, North Island, or wherever... It was just us sailor-types on the boat.
The powers-that-be planned a 3-day "RefTra" - that's refresher training in Navy lingo - for the end of July. Knowing my 21st birthday just happened to fall at the end of July, I put in for a 3-day leave. Leaves like this were pretty much just rubber-stamped. There was no compelling reason to deny - especially since we were part of the "New Navy" headed by 'Uncle Elmo' Zumwalt - Chief of Naval Operations. Uncle Elmo had revamped all of the personnel policies to make the Navy a more human place.
Yeah... it was that Leading Chief, again... Chief Tanzio wasn't about to let one of his least-favorite pieces of Government Property actually spend time off the ship enjoying his special day. No... our dear Leading Chief let me know just how indispensable I was feeding the limited crew we had on board.
Yeah, right.
I did very little during that three days floating off the coast - there literally wasn't enough to keep us busy - and that was after doing a "Navy Clean" of the bakeshops. (They really did use white gloves and that asshole really did look for stuff to criticize.)
So... I got back on land the day after and celebrated then. One of my first stops was "The Blue Crystal" - a bar up the block from Pirros's where I had been working since I was 16 - and drinking at since I was 17-18. It was all about how you ordered a drink. Order a "Seven and Seven" and you'd get carded. Order a Vodka grape short or a Jack with a Bud back and you would get a great drink.
They were really not amused that I had fooled them for such a long time.
And it wasn't the last time the asshole Chief screwed me over...