Another Waiting at the airport Story
By Connie O’Dell
June 11, 1982
We had it from a good source that Ringo would be flying in
from London to present a tape of his new album to his label. There were three flights arriving from London
that afternoon, conveniently landing about 45 minutes apart. After arriving a couple of hours early and
doing some basic Sherlock Holmes snooping around we learned that we could watch
the passenger’s walk off the plane and enter the customs door. All this looking would be done through a
glass partition but we could then rush down to customs and watch him exit and
walk to his limo. The first plane
landed, we watched every passenger walk off … not a Starkey to be seen. The next plane was due shortly and we made
our way to the scheduled gate of arrival.
We watched the British Airways jet land and taxi by. Unlike the first plane, our view did not
include being able to see the plane itself but only the hallway they would walk
down on their way to customs. Having
seen the plane land we waited for the passengers…and waited. Finally two baggage handlers came down the
hallway. We asked them when the passenger’s
would be coming through. They told us
there had been a gate change for British Airways and the passengers were now
getting off on the other side of the terminal!
Twenty minutes had passed since the plane had taxied in, we were not
sure if we had missed him! Never having
been at an airport when one of them arrived or departed we were unsure of the
whole procedure. Would he have special
clearance through customs, a faster exit?
We knew that even Ringo would have to exit through that one door, but
would he be able to race through and not wait with the rest of the people? We made quick steps to the customs door and
kept our eyes glued for any sign of him.
The minutes were feeling like hours, we were sure we had missed
him! I asked several people if they were
coming in from the British Airways flight.
Yes, they h ad been on the flight.
We were becoming more discouraged by the second. It was time for the third plane to come in
but we decided the best thing to do was to stay put. After watching several British Airways
stewardesses pass by I decided to flag one down. I asked her if Ringo had been in the first
class section. She said YES. I asked her if he would be coming through
this door. She said YES. We were encouraged that she had not said we
had missed him, so we continued to stare at the door. The door was actually a glass cubicle that
opened like an elevator door from both sides.
It held about 15-20 people at a time.
The doors were not working properly and the people were held inside the
glass cubicle for several minutes before the front door opened. We kept hoping that luck would be with us and
Ringo would be held there for a while.
After waiting about five more minutes, Dena said, “There’s
Barbara!” I looked but I didn’t see
Barbara, I saw him! The glass door didn’t
open for about four minutes. He was just
standing there in full view. He looked
great! Full beard back, jeans, burgundy
shirt with a pink tie, navy blue jacket with a star pin on the left lapel, and
of course sun glasses. He was giving us
very typical Ringo looks, giving several long glances at the movie camera Dena
was holding. He seemed very much at
ease, there were about 10 people in the cubicle with him and no one was even
talking to him or acting like they knew who he was. Barbara’s children were with them (where was
Zak, Jason or Lee?) along with Hilary Gerard.
At one point Barbara said something to him about the movie camera because
he scrunched down to give Dena a good stare.
Being only 15 feet away and directly in front of the door (even though we
were separated by a metal rail) that stare was enough to make Dena shift the
movie camera to the shoulder. She kept
the button pressed and tried to aim it as best she could in his direction. The door opened and they walked out, still no
one was talking to him. They seemed to
hesitate a second before walking along the railed off pathway that emptied into
the baggage claim area. I made my way
through the people to the baggage claim section never taking my eyes off him,
but not close enough to touch or talk to hm.
When they reached the end of the railed off section they stood there for
a moment then started walking.
By this time I was next to him, actually in back of him to
his right side. Hilary Gerard was next to
me. I raised my camera and snapped a few
close-ups of his face. I said, “Good, he
looks good.” I turned and saw Hilary
looking at me, smiling. I didn’t realize
I had said it out loud. They stopped
again. I reached out and touched his arm
just above the elbow, his jacket was so soft….velvet. I said, “Mr. Starkey…” He turned to me but
didn’t say anything. I said, “Welcome”
and held out my hand. He took my hand
but didn’t shake it, just turned it to the side. He said, “Thanks.” I was looking right into his eyes; you could
see them very clear through the sun glasses.
He let go of my hand and Barbara looked over. I said, “Welcome, Barbara” she said thanks
and smiled. Somehow it didn’t feel the
same as when he said it. While we had been
waiting for him to walk through the door there had been a rather rumpled
looking person waiting around. For comic
relief I kept giving Dena the elbow and saying, “There’s Harry (Nilsson) coming
to greet Ringo.” He did look like Harry
Nilsson. I’ll be damned if this guy didn’t
walk up to Ringo. Ringo broke into a big
grin and opened his arms and gave this guy a big hug! It had to be Harry’s brother, no one but
Harry’s brother could look like this guy.
The whole party then sort of shuffled through the swinging
doors out to the street. I followed
Hilary and sort of found myself standing at the curb next to Ringo. I must be crazy for doing this. Just walking along with them like I was part
of the group. There was no mad dash into
the limo, they just stood around chatting.
I touched Ringo’s arm again and said, “You don’t mind if we take a
couple of pictures, do you?” His lip
went up a little. I don’t think I can
call it a big smile, but close. He said,
“Try and keep it a bit quiet. It tends
to get a bit busy.” As he said this he
made a hand gesture, rocking his hand gently back and forth (a so-so
gesture). I said “okay” and stepped over
to the side. At this point I saw Debbie
and Dena and I walked over to them. It
was about this point that it hit me what I had done. I had walked with him all the way out to his
car! After some quick, “I can’t believe
you did that” from Dena and Debbie we watched him get into the limo. Barbara was around back supervising something
in the trunk of the car. One by one the
party got into the limo, and they were pulling away. We stood on the sidewalk for a few minutes,
talking about what had just happened.
Dena had filmed the whole thing and she was looking through the lens,
she said she saw Barbara. Yes, Ringo…yes,
Connie. Yes. Connie? What is Connie doing there, I can’t believe
it! And reality sunk in. I was becoming embarrassed about what I had
done. My only saving factor was that I
had not asked him for an autograph, and except for my welcome and asking if we
could take a few pictures, I had left him alone. I didn’t scream or even talk loud. He seemed to take it in stride and was not
upset in the least. He looked
great! His hair is curly again, and his
beard was really flecked with gray. His
earring was a dark blue star with a dangling gold chain, and at the end of the
chain was another dark blue star that matched the top one. He looked thin, but healthy. He was comfortable and looked extremely
at-ease considering the surrounds and the long flight he had just had. We were the only people at the airport,
besides, “Harry’s brother,” waiting for him.
Only a few people gathered by the limo.
One little boy, about eight years old, asked him if he was Ringo
Starr. It’s hard to put into words how
exciting it was to see him, and to see him so at-ease and relaxed. It is a great comfort to see him not just surviving,
but happy and busy at work on a new album.
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