The few times I have encountered close up well known celebrities, be they sports stars, movie stars, theatre stars, politicians, royalty (actually none so far) etc, etc ad infinitum, I have made a point of not bothering them. My gut feel is that the majority of them prefer it that way. In the extremely unlikely event that I ever become well known, I too will appreciate being afforded my privacy. On second thoughts make that a maybe. I am inclined occasionally to give free rein to the thespian in me. * 

I am an enthusiastic lifelong competitive physical sports fan and participant, the latter in spite of not yet having found an activity in which I could make a contribution very far past first base so to speak. Cross country running, the track mile (I did 5’ 25’’ once finishing third. The first and second both breaking five minutes.) Soccer (mid-field), rugby, (scrum half) swimming, judo, tennis, table tennis, badminton, sailing, kayaking, cricket, roller skating, ice hockey, ** English riding as in show jumping 101, western riding, downhill and cross country skiing, four man bobsleigh, *** you name it and I have probably tried it with best case, moderate success. This with just perhaps and even then arguably, soccer being about the only sport for which I might claim a half decent capability beyond moderate, say to B minus. OK let’s say B plus!

With regard to celebrities, sports or otherwise, on two occasions I have overruled myself so to speak and engaged well known individuals in conversation. In both cases thereof, I had been a long time and fervent admirer and could not resist the opportunity to tell them so. The first occurrence was in Portland, Oregon and took place at the airport whilst I was changing planes en-route to Los Angeles. It involved a champion boxer.

The boxer was none other than world champion heavyweight Muhammad Ali. I had yet to emigrate from England to Canada when he first rose to prominence and fame as Cassius Clay. I admired him from day one particularly given his humble familial background. Here he was many years later, for my money a champion of champions, signing autographs for adoring fans. Nicknamed ‘The Greatest’, he was in general very well liked and thus to no surprise, there was a very long line-up for the autographs. My wife and I had plenty of time before our flight so we joined the long but quite fast-moving line up. We eventually greeted Muhammed and held a short conversation with him. Shaking his hand, I was bemused as I realised and I am not making this up, that it was more than twice the size of mine! Granted in boxing parlance, I would be a fly weight. (115 pounds max). I told Mohammed I had very much admired him since his early Cassius Clay days. We had him sign his autograph on a piece of paper my wife managed to produce and we were on our way.

The second and to date the only other time I have engaged eyeball to eyeball with a celebrity was a very different kettle of fish. I was skiing at Whistler about 130 kms north of Vancouver, B.C. The skiing was very good as it usually is at Whistler and I was skiing with a group of friends with whom I had temporarily lost contact. (No I wasn’t lost). We were skiing what is known as a gladed run. **** A type of run known for many of the trees NOT having been removed hence offering solace and quietude in amongst those trees. I decided I could use in particular some quietude. Mountains, alpine trees and trails of course offer peace and tranquility and then some. On a gladed ski run, appropriately treed areas and concomitant trails are particularly easy to find and perhaps be shared only with a whiter than white snowshoe hare ***** as I did on one occasion also on Whistler. ****** I selected a small clump of firs and being very careful not to wipe out close to them thus risking injury, especially not a good idea when skiing solo, entered a thinly treed alpine glade filled with fresh and untrammeled snow. This jewel of a location was at least for a time mine alone in which to enjoy both peace and its’ sidekick silence.

I decided to go a little further into the tempting glade. I was by then on almost flat ground so using the skis as skates as one does, I ventured ever deeper into the thicket. ******* I felt somehow even more alone totally isolated with my thoughts. The palpable silence was both complete in and of itself as was it also calming – a time out and then some. I looked around. Maybe I would be joined by a snowshoe hare again. If it could happen once, maybe it might happen again. In a few minutes I sensed something moving close behind me. I turned around slowly and quietly not wishing to spook if not a snowshoe hare, then maybe a bird, perhaps a friendly Whisky Jack (aka Canada Jay) looking for food it had cached in the warmer months which is their wont. How they find it again I do not know. Was I surprised and delighted at what was about to unfold.

In complete silence, I had an inkling that from behind some small trees I was being watched. I felt a chill inside of me. I wondered if I was dreaming, perhaps about to wake up and find I was safe at home. Not a chance. I was being watched not by a wolf not by a coyote, not by a black bear, mercifully thank God not by a grizzly bear or a cougar. Not even this time around, by a whiter than white snowshoe hare. To my utter amazement and delight I was less than ten feet away from Pierre Elliot Trudeau, this some considerable time after he was our Prime Minister. I knew he was on the mountain having seen his extensive security entourage but not him earlier in the day. He moved further out from some brush he was close to. I moved some towards him. 

We exchanged pleasantries. I didn’t raise it but I wondered where his RCMP bodyguard detail was given it was notable only by it’s absence. They had to be around. Perhaps I thought, they had a bead on me from behind the trees in case I turned out to be an armed terrorist. I hoped they could tell the difference between such and my compact, innocent and for sure unarmed self. Likely so given that their quick prognosis of me would probably be “short, slight, speaks English with a northern Brit accent and armed only with ski poles.” Except that it turned out they were nowhere to be seen. Pierre I thought must have deliberately escaped his detail for the same reasons that I was also deep into the forested glade. Simply to escape for a while from the endlessly milling cacophonous humanity extant, fellow skiers or not. We truly were the only two people in that small, silent and blissful corner of our planet.

Canadian and in particular federal as opposed to provincial politics, was at the time quite chaotic and unsettled. What else is new? I forget what the particular federal issues were at the time. Mr Trudeau politically was of course a liberal and by then, Canada’s former Prime Minister. I was and am a liberal period. A relative rarity not just in British Columbia but in all four provinces that constitute Western Canada. As stated I didn’t recall specifically what the issues were, but at the time, federally there had been some challenging and very debatable ones. For the second time I had broken my code of not bothering personalities I might encounter. “Mr. Trudeau” I said. “Don’t you wish you could take back the reins of power and resolve whatever it was I thought at the time was not being well addressed?”

With still no signs of his body guards, Mr Trudeau smiled, looked me in the eye and said, verbatim: “No. You can’t go back, you can only go forward.” We then had a brief and friendly further conversation and I thanked him for giving me his time and of course told him he and his fellow Liberal politicians had my vote. I skied back onto the main run and headed for the lift. I still wondered where his security entourage was. I had seen them earlier in the day sans Mr. Trudeau. Certainly, there had been many more than a few alleged security guards. They were still not protecting Mr. Trudeau ******** from anywhere close by unless they were all disguised as trees. 

* Actors and actresses are called thespians in honour of Thespis, a Greek playwright and performer. Around 535 B.C.E Thespis added a new dimension to fame by stepping out of the Greek chorus during a performance and reciting portions of the text alone, becoming the first actor. Who knew?

 ** I was once praised by a team member after a game for my, apparently to his mind, superb positional play. The individual handing me the accolade then pointed out my extremely limited stick handling skills. (I wasn’t long off the boat from the UK). I was playing soccer on ice! I did roller and ice skate in England but only forwards. My new found buddies in Vancouver, Canada did manage to teach me to skate backwards! And, they had me hang out in front of the opponents’ goal with instructions to ‘keep my stick on the ice’. They of course shot at it and the puck many times hit the back of the net. I thought I was scoring goals!

*** One run on the Calgary Olympics track. Four of us with no driver!! See my story ‘The Most Exciting Minute Of My life’ Apr 18, 2019. I was the brake man – at the back of the four man bobsleigh and there were no brakes!

**** Glade skiing (also known as glading) is skiing on off-trail ungroomed off-piste alpine ski runs through trees on a defined woods trail. Glades are typically sought for their solitude. They are typically found at the sides of regular ski runs.

***** Below, a Snowshoe hare.

****** See my story Whistler Self Rescue April 18, 2019. Envying it’s natural ability to survive and prosper high in the alpine winter environment, we had a snowshoe hare accompany us for a short while. 

******* A dense group of trees.

******** Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau PC CC CH QC FRSC was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. He also briefly served as the leader of the Opposition from 1979 to 1980.