Don'cha just love when that happens?
There *was* an amusement park West Coasters would remember called "Magic Mountain." It was a big thing when it opened in the '70's, and I got to go there when it was no more than an office trailer on a lot of vacant land. Probably doesn't mean anything to anyone else, but it means a lot to me that I was able to watch this place grow, got to go there a few times as a kid after it opened, watched it sold to 6 flags, and then the fateful day when 6 flags went bankrupt and out of business. Ah....
I got to see the original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" movie with Gene Wilder at a private screening at Paramount Studios before it was released to the public...was a highlight of my childhood.
My dad took me to the Irwindale dragstrip before it was sold to Miller brewery and I watched Don "the Snake" Prudomme beat Gene Conway by a nose, another big deal to me as a kid. My dad took me to the end of the track and I got to shake Don Prudomme's hand...pretty big deal to a 10 year old kid. I wish I still had the toy hot wheel I played with of the Snake's Funny Car. I met the man again many years later here at the Gatornationals.
It's interesting to me, how we cross paths with "history" or "fate" or "destiny" more often than we know. John Travolta's family lives not far from here, and from what I hear he is "just a normal guy." He's been to my hospital several times visiting family or friends, and has been quite sociable, with the only request being to keep it casual and leave the media out of it. Seems reasonable to me. My point being we never know when we will stumble across something significant, or something significant may stumble over us.
