I returned with my Dad from North Carolina, WrestleCade, and Fort Bragg (and a couple of Diners, Drive-Ins and Drives for good measure) on the evening of Monday, November 28, 2016, to the smiling face of Carolyn who was dragging Christmas tree stuff upstairs, and some delightful little muffins. But that’s not all I returned to: I had a pretty unbelievable celebrity encounter coming up the next day, and as you’ve probably guessed from the photo, it was with the Boss himself. No, not Hal Roach, not Carolyn, not Silas, not my boss Debbie from work… this was THE Boss that everyone knows.
Smiling face of Carolyn
Delightful little muffins
I’m most certainly not a professional autograph/photo op hound. I don’t go hang out at airports, or stalk Awards shows, or camp outside people’s house. I do it on a small scale really. I got the autograph shows, I will maybe wait at a stage door now and then after a show, I’ll even contact them and try to meet up for a meal, but that’s about it. Consequently there are many celebs that sort of fall into the category of ‘impossible’ to meet. Granted, I’ve been lucky more than once and had some pretty incredible chance encounters, but most of the biggies are exceptions to the rule.
I would definitely consider Bruce Springsteen a biggie.
If someone had asked me a year prior to this if I thought I’d ever get a picture with Bruce Springsteen, I’d probably laugh, but I swear, sometimes kismet is really on my side.
This time it came in the form of Facebook, and seeing a posting by Erin Rosati – daughter of longtime family friends Frank and Mary Rosati – whom I hadn’t seen in many, many years until earlier this year when I went to Frank and Mary’s 40th anniversary party. She had posted something about getting four tickets to attend a book signing that included a signed copy of the book and a photo op with Bruce. Someone’s comment on there hinted that they wanted to go to, and Erin’s response indicated that she might actually have an extra ticket. She had one for her, one for Mary, one for Frank, and one for a friend in Chicago. I immediately commented that if she ended up with an extra, I was the man who could rectify that.
She commented that Frank hadn’t decided if he was going to go, so I may just be in luck. A few weeks passed and when I contacted her again, she told me that I was in fact in luck… and even luckier than I had hoped, because not only did Frank decide not to go, but her friend in Chicago had secured his own ticket for a signing in his own area. This meant that Carolyn could go too! By the way, these 1100 tickets generally sold out in a matter of seconds after going on sale.
So the day rolled around on Tuesday, November 29. Carolyn and I both took the day off and headed out that morning around 9:30am. We made great time and got to Joseph-Beth Bookseller around 10:30. We browsed the bookstore while we waited for Mary and Erin to get there with the tickets. They had been slightly delayed when Erin drove off without the tickets and had to return. The place was already pretty darn packed, and by the time they arrived and we checked in, we were given Group P, meaning we had to get through groups A through O before we got to line up. So we waited and chatted until they began letting people see him at noon. And then we waited and chatted some more until it was finally our turn around 1:40pm.
P Group, and our instructions
Practicing our smiles
Waiting and waiting…
It was all done very well and should be the gold standard for book signing meet and greets. Although they kept it moving quickly, I did have time enough for an awkward handshake (my right shaking his left), a quick hello, him telling me “thanks for coming”, me breaking into a rousing rendition of Dancing in the Dark… no, just kidding on that last one. And then a photo taken by a bookstore employee in ‘explode’ mode on the camera, so that I ended up with exactly ten different photos of us, the first nine being nearly identical and the tenth showing my blurry arm as it started to raise to point at him. Then after the photo encounter, we presented our ticket stub downstairs and claimed our pre-signed book Born to Run, which was priced at what our ticket cost. It was a great deal all the way around.
Now the ‘second’ BOSS I’ve met
Carolyn’s turn
Erin and Mary each got one, and then one together. He was incredibly fan friendly.
Our full body shot, as I get ready to point at him – right when they stopped taking the pictures
The signed page in the book, obviously autographed then bound in later
Incidentally, Cincinnati was an add-on to the original nine cities where he did this. I’m not sure how it worked in other cities, but my friend Michael Stern told me that he had to wait something like 20 hours in line for his encounter to come true. Lucky us, eh??
As if we hadn’t spent enough time together, the four of us then walked over to Don Pablo’s for lunch, which was a nice time. Then we headed on home, watched a few sitcoms, and Carolyn finished putting up the naked tree.
And since we’ve gotten this far, I’ll go ahead and polish off November by reporting that on Wednesday the 30th, Mom and I had lunch at Chick-fil-A, and then that night I went home and watched The Purge: Anarchy, and read some MAD as I tried to get in good standing with my 2016 goals as we entered the last month of the year.
2016 will continue with December and the fun stuff that goes with the Christmas season…
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