I just finished watching episode three and it brought back all kinds of memories. The days of the Bad Boys Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls rivalry. And then I saw all the kids asking for autographs - ah, the memories.
When I was a kid, Reno Bertoia was playing for the Detroit Tigers. He was related to my aunt's husband. His mother was a caterer and my mother would sometimes fill in when she needed help with an event. When I was in college and working part time in a bridal salon, I would sell his sister her wedding gown. And I would get autographs. I had an autograph book and would wait outside the team door at the old Tiger Stadium. My good friend was the President of the Pete Burnside fan club. I think the autograph book got trashed when I moved out of my parent's home under not so pleasant circumstances.
Anyway, watching the program today I remembered that I had a file of autographs stashed away here. So I went looking and this is some of what I found:
The signature from Bill Lambier was from his visit to our offices when he bought a home that straddled a dividing line between us and a neighboring city. Vinnie Johnson's autograph was easy since he was the best friend of a friend of mine. The three of us had some good dinners together. And Joe Dumars was shopping in the local Kroger and was kind enough to sign.
One day while having lunch with my secretary we spotted Dennis Rodman at the next table and I got his autograph. Since he ended up playing with Michael Jordan after he left Detroit, I threw in Michael's pic since the documentary series is all about him. Yeah, I have just a few basketball cards - my baseball card collection went the way of my autograph book.
So, when you were a kid did you get autographs? Do you still have them?
I didn't go to sports events as a kid. When my son was young we sometimes took him to our local AA baseball team's games. We got a couple of autographs on balls of players who ended up in the majors - one, I think, was Jose Reyes. No idea where the ball is, though. You got some interesting ones. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteToo bad about losing? the ball. Some sport's memorabilia is worth quite a bit of money.
DeleteYou got some great autographs!. I think the only autographs I got growing up was from Mickey mouse and other characters at Disneyland.
ReplyDeleteBetty
You know, I think my kids got some of those at Disney World.
DeleteSports never interested me other than watching Wimbledon. I remember having an autograph book but I think I only collected the signatures of friends. Nobody famous.
ReplyDeleteI have my senior yearbook and I can't even remember some of the kids who signed the book. And they said we were great friends. Must be getting old, lol.
DeleteThat is so cool. My dad was a painting contractor and he painted the homes of Giants Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal. I did get their autographs but sadly, I haven't been able to find them. Too many moves I guess. I also met and got the autograph of Shirley Temple Black when she was running as a local assembywoman. I was a 6th grader and I couldn't get over it - there was Shirley Temple! I asked her if I could hug here and she laughed and said, "of course." and my friend and I asked her a few too many questions. She was gracious. Even though my parents didn't vote for her.
ReplyDeleteHow cool is it to meet Shirley Temple! While the younger set today is saying "Shirley who?"
DeleteLike Jo, the only sport I watch is the Wimbledon tennis - but not this year! What wonderful memories autographs evoke. I had a restaurant in a theatre district which was frequented by just about every actor, singer or comedian that appeared there and I got them to sign theatre posters. Today I can't watch television for a few hours without seeing someone who's autograph I have in my vast collection!
ReplyDeleteI remember a blog post you did with pictures of your restaurant and I thought 'how cool!' I regret that I never took more pictures of folks I met. Of course, carrying around a large camera would not have been too cool at a social event.
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