OK Then, What's YOUR Claim To Fame ( obscure or otherwise )

To me, meeting someone is actually shaking their hand and saying hello, so in that manner, I have not met him, but I have stood next to him. He was busy talking to fans (I admire him, but I am not a fan of his, so I let his real fans have their moment). This was actually at the Hidalgo premiere, which happend to be the same time as one of our Oscar parties. Vigo actually arrived riding Hidalgo. It was quite spectacular.

Also, tell your daughter that he definitely had a very charasmatic way about him. In fact, I would go as far as saying there was a certain aura surrounding him, that had nothing to do with his fame. He is also quite a handsome man. 

It would have to be my stage debue at Florida's disneyland in the wild west Saloon...while the sexy saloon girl was rubbing my hubby's bald head, sitting on his lap singing to him.. and plopped an big red kiss on it, they drug me and another guy up on the stage....I got to do sounds effects... and the other guy got to do the action..like ride an broom stick pony to rescue an gal....while I got tot do the coconuts on the table for the foot hooves...and we had the "story telller" in-between us....so I'm clopping along....and he says "John starts going faster"...and I'm really going cloppity clopping.. and then he says,,,He dropped the baby!....and I heard that.... and for some reason I spontaneously yells out "HE WHAT!... and stopepd everything... looking at him....and everyone burst out laughing...he told me to stop taking his lines... then he says ...you can tell she;'s an "mother"..... they laughed some more......but he came up afterward and said that my reaction just made the whole show... as others came along and said " job well done"...but I guess I did take him by surprise. I have pictures of this arond here somewhere. Me on stage and the big red kiss that saloon gal gave my hubby. It was fun!

Oh, I came home tonight amid great big wet sloppy snowflakes. this was not to start until after midnight...and I have my grandson here, an dhubby says they have snow out  at their house...reason he's staying here tonight. Talk later.   I'd do that bike thing if I got the opportunity also James....laughs*

In the Spring of 1974, I performed part of my student teaching at Peter Symonds College in Winchester as part of an agreement between my American university and several schools in Hampshire. During the three wonderful months I spent in Winchester, I lived at Abbots Barton Farmhouse on the north edge of the city, a wonderful old Grade II house that dated back to the late 15th century and parts of which were proported to date from the early 12th century. I lived in the "new" wing of the house, which was built in 1710.

The people who so graciously opened their home to me and eight other American student teachers were Bill and Angela Kirby. Bill was an art professor at the University of Southampton. Legally blind with ever deteriorating eyesight, Bill went on to champion and develop audio tours of museums for the blind, for which he was awarded an OBE.

It is Angela Kirby, however, who serves as my "claim to fame." Angela was an energetic, rather eccentric, incredibly funny woman who taught English literature and theater at the Montgomery of Alamein boys' school. At about the time I was doing my student teaching, one of Angela's students was the future actor Colin Firth. Mr. Firth has mentioned Angela in more than one interview as one of the prime reasons that he pursued acting. Angela was very popular with her students and many of her best students would pop over to the house from time to time to visit (probably to "check out" the Americans as well!), usually in small groups. I often wonder if Colin Firth, who would have been 14 at the time, was one of those young men who regularly visited! Here are links to a couple of the interviews with Mr. Firth in which he mentions Angela:

 http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6060842

http://www.firth.com/articles/020913tes.html

Sadly, both Bill and Angela Kirby have now passed, but they both left a lasting legacy and it was an honor knowing them.

Thanks James! Those three months that I spent in Winchester were wonderful! I loved every second of my time there!

James, I highly recommend that you visit that wonderful city--well worth the trip!