Thanks for the Turkey

Don't say we don't know how to milk a situation for all the humor we can get out of it.

Yesterday, Ned posted this photo to Facebook:

Ned is the image guy for radio station 93.7 (Jack.FM) and took a series of photos recognizing George Lucas' birthday. This one didn't make it to the radio's web site, but he knew that there would be lots of laughs from the family.

Many, many years ago Walt's brother (who has now been married nearly twenty-five years) was dating a woman who worked for George Lucas. I forgot her name years and years ago. At Thanksgiving that year, Lucas gave each of his employees a turkey. As it happened, Norm invited this woman to join us for Thanksgiving dinner at Lake Tahoe and she brought along the turkey. We all enjoyed our gift from George Lucas.

Fast forward many years to when the kids were adults. Paul's college roommate was a guy named Patrick Combs who has gone on to become, as he describes it, "an Inspirational Speaker, Success Coach, Raconteur and Theater Performer, Story writer, Author..." I've reconnected with him on Facebook.

Pat had a social function to go to at Skywalker Ranch, Lucas' huge complex which is, coincidentally, just about a mile up Lucas Valley Rd. from my mother's house. Pat asked Paul if he wanted to go along.

Well, Paul wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to visit Skywalker Ranch and so he jumped at the chance.

At some point during the evening, Pat spied George Lucas and asked Paul if he wanted to meet him. As I recall Paul telling the story later he said something like "Of course! The dude made Star Wars!"

For all of his years on stage and in the public eye, Paul could get just as tongue tied as the rest of us around celebrities, especially people he admired. I remember when he once bumped into his idol, David Byrne, at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Byrne was behind a theatre taking a smoke break, Paul just happened along. The two of them were completely alone. Paul had admired David Byrne for years and all he could think of was to say "how's it going?" as he walked past him. He then decided it was stupid to blow his one big chance to be alone with his idol and he should at least talk to him, but by the time he returned, Byrne was disappearing inside the building. Paul picked up the cigarette he had been smoking and saved it. His one chance to connect with David Byrne.

(Years later, after Paul died, Audra brought their "child," the smiley face doll named "Happy" to a reunion of The Talking Heads and got a photo of the group holding him. Paul would have been thrilled.)

But this was George Lucas and Paul wasn't going to pass up the chance to talk with him. (After all, the dude made Star Wars!)

Patrick introduced Paul to Lucas, Paul was tongue tied and finally blurted out, "Thanks for the turkey!"

I don't think they said much more to each other than that, but we have laughed about that story all these years and so I really had myself a chuckle when I saw Ned's photo on Facebook.

---

LATER: Ned has informed me that apparently I dreamed most of this. I have obviously confused The Lamplighters (who recorded a CD at Skywalker Ranch) with Paul, who met George Lucas at some party at which Lawsuit was playing. The "thanks for the turkey" part was accurate, however! (Oh--and Patrick Combs had nothing to do with either!)