Many people freak out when someone famous gets near them. I have never envied the famous when it came to privacy or the ability to do things in public. For this reason I am pretty sure that I will never meet anyone famous.
I have been around when famous people have been around and people have swarmed them. Such a scene always drives me away as I would like to not be a person who is bothering someone else so much. This behavior will help guarantee that I never meet famous people.
My claim to not ever meeting famous people comes with some caveats. The first caveat is that I have some famous cousins that I have met at family reunions and get togethers. I met Cleon Skousen (Political and Religious author) at the Skousen family reunion in 1994. At the same function I ran across Bart Oates and his brother Brad who both played in the NFL (Bart won the super bowl the season after that). I met Dale Murphy (Outfielder for the Braves, Phillies, Rockies and two time National League MVP) and have seen him at many family funerals. I don’t count these as meeting famous people because they were really just meeting family who happened to be well known.
The next caveat is meeting someone who is not really that famous or at least not in your area. I met one of the greatest musicians of all time, but his fame is overwhelmingly had only in Canada. Ian Thornley (formerly of Big Wreck) did a show which I attended. His band was the opener and afterward they said they would be in the back of the club to sign stuff and hang out. I could not resist of course since he and his band were the entire reason I had come to the show. I went back and had them sign a CD while the headlining act played. Myself and my friends along with 2 other people were the only ones back with them. It was strange because they had put on a really good show that the crowd enjoyed but since they were not famous no one cared too much beyond the occasional passerby saying “you rock” or something like that. I felt like a silly teenage girl talking to Ian, since I had heard his music in high school and thought it was amazing. Since he was not being swarmed by others because of his lack of huge gigantic fame in my area I consider this one just hanging out after a show with someone who is famous elsewhere in the world. When I write it out I guess I have met a famous person, just mildly famous, and I was not annoying about it.
I can’t believe I almost totally forgot about meeting a famous person under perfectly normal and non-teengirl screamer way. I have met and chatted with LaVell Edwards twice. Once at the aforementioned football camp where I was told that I could be an All-American tight end. The second time was in 1998 when he noted that I must be the one that gets all the groceries in the family since I was so much larger than my uncle. Those were both full fledged meeting a famous person and I cannot find a way to excuse it away.