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My Brush with Greatness
When I was a mere lad
of 19, on and off, until I was 23, I was a waiter at a
vegetarian restaurant in St. Louis called the Sunshine Inn. I met lots
of people,
including, as Mel Brooks used to say when playing the 2000-Year-Old
Man,
the great, the near-great, the not-so-great, and the losers.
St. Louis got, and still gets, summer stock musicals and plays at the
Muni in Forest Park.
As someone who's familiar with the town, I'm sure you recognize those
landmarks,
still in existence today--but sadly, not the restaurant.
I remember seeing Arne Johnson of "Laugh-In" fame, the German soldier
in the palm trees
famous for saying "Very interesting...but stupid", in the other
waiter's section. I didn't wait
on him, but he did flag me down (sort of an impolite but efficient way
to get service) for a
refill of water across the entire floor. He said he was afraid he would
be late for rehearsal.
I was lucky enough to meet and shake the hand of the late great union
organizer and
immigrant activist Cesar Chavez. He was humble, he smiled and greeted
me back,
and seemed very grateful to have himself AND his cause recognized as
well as appreciated
here in the Midwest, far from the California lettuce fields. Talk about
greatness...
I had a similar encounter with William Masters and Virginia Johnson,
the sex scientists,
whose offices were right down the street from the restaurant. They were
gracious and polite.
I am surprised I never saw them more than once, they were so close.
Later,
Daddy-O