# Interesting people you've met.



## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

Going through some old pics and found this one with Al McDonald, (taken near Oodnadatta, South Australia, circa 1961/2).











Al was a half-Maori who fought on the Kokoda Track/Trail in New Guinea during WWII http://kokoda.commemoration.gov.au/

Al subsequently became a boxer and a miner....and was affectionately known as the 'Mayor of Tennant Creek' http://www.myrasplace.net/hstones/htencrk.htm #128

I met him when he advertised his willingness to take some passengers north, (friends had landed me a laboring job on a dam in Kununarra W.A.), so I went up to his large home on the Anzac Highway, (which at the time was Adelaide's expensive area).

Rode with Al as far as Alice Springs.......he kept us in fits with his stories of traveling with a boxing troupe in the Northern Territory.......here's one of my favorites:

Post war, (and it's probably not much different now), the 'towns' in the N.T. were basically mining camps...full of rough, tough, isolated and 'socially deprived' guys.

Al and 'associates' would arrive, set up a boxing ring, (by which time everyone was gathered around to watch), and put on a few 'exhibition bouts'.

When the mood was right they'd issue a 'challenge'....."Go three rounds with one of our guys and win (whatever amount of money)".

(Every camp/town had that _one_ guy.....the local toughie...who, even if he wanted to, couldn't resist the peer pressure to 'show them'.)

Al said that, for the first two rounds, his guy would take a beating.....while the rest of his troupe was busy taking/placing, (what appeared to the suckers to be a foregone conclusion), bets.

Third round.....boxer would go in the ring and beat the absolute crap out of the 'contender' (as Al said "We were professional boxers, they weren't...they didn't stand a chance").


Money collected....trucks packed...gone....before anyone (of the suckers) clued in...if they ever did.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

Good topic Nemo..........should be interesting and I look forward to reading people's contributions.


----------



## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

^ +1.

*Nemo:* that's you on the right? You haven't changed much. 

On this forum, you're definitely one of the most interesting members.


----------



## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

Toronto.gal said:


> ^ +1.
> 
> *Nemo:* that's you on the right?


'Tis indeed I. Where did the past 52 years go?


----------



## Rubab20 (Sep 11, 2014)

My Granma Met Hulk Hogan in an airport and got his autograph.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

Not anyone terribly famous........but I have met a lot of NHL hockey players, referees, or parents.

One person I would like to have met..........would have been Sir Winston Churchill.

Such a flair for words and thought..........I wonder if he talked that way over lunch.

Perhaps my interest was stirred because I attended an elementary school that bore his name.......and we wondered who is the man who relentlessly watches us from the portrait on the wall.

The teachers gave us some obligatory glimpses of his life.

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/Funny-Historical-Quotes/a/Winston-Churchill-Quotes.htm


----------



## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

Lots of musicians in my time in the business and also through running bars- All of Guns n' Roses, the Cult, AC/DC, Todd Rundgren (at an Oktoberfest tent in Munich), Lemmy from Motorhead a couple of times (we drank bourbon), the Tragically Hip, Joseph Arthur (if anyone knows who he is- I'm a huge fan of all his many artistic endeavours), Ozzy Osbourne, Pete Best (original Beatles drummer, jammed with him on the streets of Manchester when I was busking through Europe). Briefly had a fling with a girl from Nottingham who had a hit with a remake of Stayin' Alive in the mid-90's. I think her mother played keys or something at some point for Andrew Lloyd Webber. An old friend of mine taught Slayer how to hot knife hashish and another dropped acid with Nirvana before they were famous.

When my band played the Whiskey in L.A. we drank next to Ron Jeremy, and also Bruce Kulick from Kiss in the Rainbow. Joey Buttafuoco was there also.

Actors- Charles Martin Smith (Untouchables, American Graffiti) used to drink Mojitos on my bar in Vancouver's West End while reading scripts, Ryan Reynolds used to be a regular at my bar in Vancouver's Kitsilano almost 16-17 years ago- both super nice guys. Met Penn and Teller.

Sports figures- Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Frank Mahovlich and many others from the late 60's/early 70's. I have their autographs somewhere.

Erin Brockovich sat on my bar in the Caymans. Met a ton of fantastic people in my travels, some famous, many just with incredible stories. I've got a picture somewhere in a bar in either Holguin or Santa Clara, Cuba taken with a guy who fought beside Gueverra against Batista. He was captured and tortured. I've got another shot with a former Dachau inmate who used to stand outside the crematorium and tell people what it was really like. He'd give you his business card for a little money to help in his old age- I still have it somewhere in my travel memorabilia. One of Donald Trump's lawyers took over the receivership for the resort I was running a nightclub at in the Caymans- he's a Duke law professor. He had great stories about taking over properties in the Caribbean- things like villagers burning him in effigy for cutting off the hot water they were stealing from the resorts and piping it down the hill to their settlement.

I traveled with the daughter of Kathy Reichs, the ridiculously rich author of the Bones series, in the Czech Republic in 1998 when she was a lawyer. Kerry (the daughter) is now a well-published novelist in her own right. 

I met a girl in Ljubljana who was practicing 'Dice Living'- essentially asking the dice questions and doing whatever they said no matter what. Some book mentioned it and she took it to heart. She'd been doing it for years.

Probably a few more to add but it's 2am and I have to work in the morning. 

Memory lane- fun topic- thanks Nemo!


----------



## Islenska (May 4, 2011)

Lyall Thurston jumps to mind. His parents had a fishing lodge in Cranberry Portage (my home town) Northern Mb and we caught lake trout together in the lazy summers 1960s

He went onto an MD and was one of the original group in Green Peace that sailed up to Amchitka for the nuclear bomb testing protest,said it was a "smoke filled trip"

Sadly Lyall is gone now, he was an original hippie, very anti-establishment , but solid to the core. Just remember him as my good fishing buddy!


----------



## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

Well most interesting people I met are not famous so probably would not mean anything here but in my travels playing high stakes poker I have met a few CEO of the online gaming world and many professional poker players.Last weekend I had dinner with the CEO of one of the big UK publicly traded gaming companies.I have been playing and attending industry events for a decade now , William Hill ,888 ,Party Gaming ,Bodog etc .Probably the most interesting person I met in my travels and again in the gaming circle was a player who hit a 3 million pound jackpot ,I had won a very high prize as well in 2011 and this group took their top players for the year on a trip.We are sitting at dinner and I asked her what she had bought herself out of her big win and without skipping a beat she put her hands on her chest and said 'well I bought this outfit and 2 others at Marks and Spencer'.I on other hand bought a car and a big diamond ring lol


----------



## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

@indexxx: Wow, write a book already....you've been around and met some interesting people...it'd be a great read! :encouragement:


----------



## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

I've met a few but my favourite brush with smarminess was meeting the trailer park boys in a basement hole of a bar in Montreal. Ricky, Julian and Bubbles were all there having a few before the first UFC card at the Bell Centre that night.


----------



## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

I've met David Foster while fuelling his yacht.


----------



## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

In my early years, I met Ronnie Hawkins, Robbie Lane and Terry Bush. I even dated Terry's girlfriend while he was on tour. Terry's biggest hit was the theme from the Littlest Hobo. Others I have met are in the world of business and not well-known. Exceptions are Bill Gates and Richard Branson but only at conferences. Also had some dealings with John Manley during my stint doing business in Malaysia and The Philippines.

Knew lots of executives from my Megacorp days, of course. Also knew Neil Young when he went to my public school and high school. Had some of the same teachers and visited the same principal's office. I contributed to his Biography, Young Neil by Sharry Wilson.

I know some other authors like Vickie Jensen (Totem Poles of Stanley Park) and Linda Cronin (Midlife Runaway) who share our passion for PV.

Also Val Pattee for The Onion Files and another PV snowbird.


----------

