Close encounters of the best kind (part 2)

I am so sorry that it has taken me longer than I had anticipated to get the second part of this story up.   

Photo by Karen Dyson 1978

This is the 1978 Long Beach Program like the on  the girls in the story had with them and had George sign.  This one is also signed by George and some of the racers, but it isn't the one that the girls in this story had.

Close Encounters of the best kind

U.S. Grand Prix West Long Beach California

April  2, 1978

By Karen Dyson and Kris Spackman

Up early again and off at 7am, headed for Long Beach.  Someone had stolen our parking permit out of Kris’ car, really great, nothing like having to worry about parking on Race Day.   But things worked out; we went to our parking zone and explained to the guy what happened and he gave us a free permit.  Alright!  So far everything had gone so well; there were chances of rain, but there were showers at night, and the day was gorgeous!  Someone above was looking after us indeed.

At 9:30 was the Formula One “warm up” so we hung out at the pits beforehand; no sign of George.  I decided to use the few shots left on my roll, so I could have a new fresh roll just in case.  So while Kris and Cindy hung out at Jody’s pit, I trekked down to James Hunt’s and finished my roll on him.  I watched James for awhile, then rejoined Kris and Cindy.  Soon the cars were going to the track and there was n sign of George, so we went again to ur seats and eyed the cars passing by.  When there were about 5 or 10 minutes left of the warm up, we headed for the pits.  It really didn’t look as though George would show up, not now anyway.  The actual race didn’t start until one.

So the Grand Prix began and it was so incredible!  When the cars finally came around the first time I couldn’t believe how fast they were moving!  The cars seemed to be passing by faster than before, even fast than qualifying, which didn’t make sense.  It was so exciting when they came around; to see what place they were in.  I love it.  But so sad on the 5^th lap, the cars came around and James Hunt wasn’t there!  I looked won the road and he was obviously slowed down; when he arrived at a wider part of the road, he pulled over.  I could have died.  I felt so sad for James.  He had hit a wall with his front wheel, which mangled it.  My second choice was Jody Schkecter, but he too was eventually out of the race.   The whole thing was so too much!  Most of the crowd seemed to be fans of Mario Andretti.  The event went by so fast.  The two hours were over before we knew it.  Around the 78^th lap we went down to the pits (right after we spotted Rod Stewart strolling by).  James had left and Jody too.  Most of the cars were already in the garage.  We hung around for a while; the crowds were crazy, so we headed for the garage, figuring George would most likely show up there sooner or later.  We waited for ages.  The cars came by but there was no sign of George.  Some guy came along and handed Cindy his VIP pass, saying she could get into the barricaded area of the garage.  So she was in!  Kris and I continued to wait outside.  It was looking hopeless after a while.  Either George wasn’t showing up or he went in without us seeing him.

Jackie Stewart had gone by once; now he was leaving.  He stopped and talked with a couple of men for a while.  One of us came up with the idea of ask Jackie if George was in there, and Kris came up with an even better idea to ask him to sign her program as a good excuse to stop hm.   Jackie finally walked down the ramp and he signed.

Kris:  Have you seen George today?

Jackie:  Oh yeah, he’s around here somewhere.

Kris:  Is he in the garage?

Jackie:  No, I don’t think so.  I didn’t see him.

We two proceeded to wait again.  It was ages.  A couple of young guys were hanging around and they had seen George on Friday as well as Saturday.

Kris headed over to ask someone something from nowhere George appeared!  I could hardly get it out to call Kris’ name and when I did, I wasn’t sure if that was her name!  I tried to focus for a picture, I honestly can’t remember if I did take one or not.  Everything happened so fast, it made me terribly nervous.  I had brought a t-shirt with me that I wanted to give to George.  It’s a goofy t-shirt from a bar in Boulder, Colorado called The Dark Horse.  It’s really funny.  So I thought better now than never. I hurried over to him, and called to him.  George was a few steps away when he finally turned around.

Karen:  May I give you something?

George:  Oh yeah (he came over to me and I held open the t-shirt; he held the ends and looked at it.)  Oh yeah, that’s nice.

He then let it go and began to walk away!  This totally confused me, and I didn’t know quite what to do, so I called out to him again.  George turned back around and I said, “Will you take it?  May I give it to you?”  George came back to get it and said, “Oh sure.”  Then he went up the ramp with Olivia.  Further up, he opened the shirt up and checked it out again.

(Kris speaking)   In the meantime, from God only knows where, I‘d gotten the first stroke of courage of my whole life and captured those very precious moments on film.  While I shook the whole time and didn’t even know if the camera was in focus (somehow it came out beautifully!)

And off he went inside, to encounter Cindy, who saw him the moment he came in the door.  As she hurried towards him, he instantly spotted her Dark Horse t-shirt (a genuine one she’d gotten in a trade), and proceeded to totally blow our Cindy away by saying, “hi darlin’!” to her!  He also saw the camera in her hand and without her even having to ask, promptly posed with Olivia for her!  She stayed close while he talked with other people and tried not to stare, but every time she’d sneak a look at him, he’d be looking right back at her!  The look on his face was one of genuine delight like “Wow you really like me!”

He wasn’t in the garage for very long and by this time Karen and I were inside watching them from a distance.

(Karen speaking)  He had my shirt all neatly folded in his hand.  We thought we saw Cindy talking to him, but we weren’t sure.  We figured she’d see the t-shirt and know we’d seen him.  As he started for the door, Cindy finally approached him and asked him to sign a scrap of paper for her.  He was most obliging and as he did so, asked where she’d gotten her t-shirt.  She explained about the trade to him, then noticed he was wearing an “I think it was the trousers” button!  Without a second thought, Cindy most innocently exclaimed, “Oh George, I think it was the trousers too.”

He started laughing, “Oh yeah?” and asked if she’d seen and enjoyed the Rutles program. They talked for a couple minutes, then he was on his way to the door again.  As we had the day before, we made a mad dash for the exit, racing around the building.  And there he was only a few feet in front of us, walking hand in hand with Olivia.  We drew up shot, not knowing what to do, hating to follow him but wanting so badly to talk to him for just a minute.  

I told Kris that we can’t follow him, but then we took another 10 steps.  I felt so bad.  What should we do?  He headed up a side street toward Ocean Boulevard; it was as if we’d totally lost all control over our legs, as if we were drawn by a powerful magnet.  We were totally helpless.  But he didn’t even know we were there.  

We tried to keep our distance, but there were times they’d slow down and we’d get so close to them.  Once or twice we nearly were standing right next to them.  I could hear George’s voice now and then.  I was so scared he was gonna turn around and be angry with us.  I worried like crazy the entire time.  We followed him for ages; over a bridge, back onto the street, not knowing where in the world we were going, or what we’d do if and when he stopped.  George and Olivia were so cute, holding hands the entire time.  We all continued a block more or so.  At one point George looked at Olivia, gave her a big gorgeous smile, then put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him.  Oh, it was just so cute; the two of them were so darling together.

Down the road was a limo, which I suspected was theirs.  We got up to the limo, the chauffeur opened the door, George helped Olivia into the car, and then stood there and talked with the chauffeur, who apologized, saying he couldn’t’ find a closer place to park.  George told him it was ok and the chauffeur said something to make George laugh and say, “Oh yeah?”  George turned around and looked at us:  Kris and I just looked back and him, so he got in the car and closed the door.  I didn’t know what to do, so I asked the chauffeur if he’d ask George to sign my program.  He said, “You go ahead and ask him!”  

(Kris Speaking)  Karen and I looked at each other.  I got down by the window and pointed to her program.  “George, could you sign this for her?”  He rolled down the window, undid his seat belt and scooted forward, as Karen said, “Oh George, we’re so sorry to bother you.”

“That’s ok, that’s ok,” he assured, taking the program from her hand.  (In the program is a picture of George, James Hunt and Leo Sayer.  We’re sure he was tickled to have his pictures in the program.  Earlier Karen had gotten James to sign it and commented jokingly to me, “Gee, if I got George to sign this, I bet he’d say, “Oh you got James to sign, too!”) 

I opened the program to the page Hunt and signed and handed George the pen.

George:  ‘Oh, I see you got James to sign.”

Karen:  Oh yeah, what happened to his car?

George:  He hit a wall with his wheel in the 5^th lap.

Karen:  He’s not doing very well so far this year.

George:  No, he’s not.  (He then signed for Kris)

Kris:  Did you enjoy the race, George?

George:  Oh yes, though I’m not a fan of Carlos (Carlos Reutemann won the race)

Then he looked at me and saw my “the Rutles are coming” button.  “oh the Rutles!  Good!”

Karen told him he looked real spiffy in the show and he started laughing.  Karen then asked what were his plans for the future.  Replied our “hard-working” George, “I’m going home next week to start working on my album.  It’ll be out in July or August.”

“July or August?!” cried Karen, in a tone of “What have you been doing all this time?”

Knowing full well we’d know what he meant, he grinned and replied, “Yeah, well, I’m in semi-retirement now, ya know!”

Karen:  Ah c’mon, now don’t you start giving us that…

George:  (laughing) I am!  I am in semi-retirement!

Kris:  Any plans for a tour, George?

George:  No…no tour.  It’s too much trouble.

Then very nicely he excused himself because people were beginning to gather.  We waved goodbye and watched as the limo pulled away then went absolutely wild and crazy with joy!   We went back to find Cindy and all went nuts together.

There are no words to suffice.  How do you describe the most incredible weekend of your life?  And whoever up there likes us—thank you!