Odd encounters

There was a story on the internet in which a lady was hiking on a trail in the mountains of Western North Carolina when she was stopped by Secret Service agents on the trail and asked if she would submit to a metal detector. Oddly, she agreed. In a matter of seconds she was talking with the president and his wife, who were also walking on the trail. That would have been an experience.

It reminds me of a time when I was with a group of W&L students in London, trying to find an underground station to get us to the Aldwych theater on time for a performance, when everything got real busy and there were cars and policemen all over the place. We stopped to ask two girls on the sidewalk what was going on and they informed us that the president of the college was visiting. We walked on past the hubbub only to turn around and see the Queen Mother exit from a Rolls Royce limo behind us. The girls were laughing. How were we to know that the Queen Mother was the president of the college?

Most of my encounters with celebrity have been in airports, although I have met a few fairly famous politicians in law offices and on the street.