Celeste17: Question

[miws]

Celeste, How do you know the Birthdays of so many WSB’ers?

Have you acquired, (hopefully legitimately), J.P. Patches ICU2 TV Set? ;-)

Mike

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[celeste17]

Mike, but of course I have the J.P. Patches ICU2 TV Set. :) But I also have the birthday’s from Facebook. Facebook tells me when someone birthday is coming up and if they are a WSB I try to post it here.

I loved J.P. Patches when I was growing up. One of these days I am going to go see his statue.

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[miws]

I had a hunch it was at least one or the other, if not both. ;-)

I still need to see the statue too. Wanted to go to the dedication back in Aug ’08, but just one slight problem. The event occured during my lengthy hospital stay. :-(

Oh, BTW, J.P.’s 83rd Birthday is coming up April 1st.

No foolin’! ;-)

Mike

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[celeste17]

Mike, lets plan a date to go see the statue. I can’t do it on the 1st as I have to take Mom to the Doctor. I am available most weekends. My brother once got kissed by Gertrude.

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[Gina]

What? No Boris Buddies?

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[miws]

Sounds like a plan, Celeste!

Gina, it’ll be ten years this summer, IIRC that I unexpectedly ran into J.P. making an appearance at a classic car show at Bellevue Community College.

I think it was the first time I’d seen him in person since I was a kid. (Was never on his show, but went to a few store openings IIRC.) His wife was with him, handling the table of J.P. merchandise.

Fortunately, they set the table up near where my buddies had their hotrods parked, so we got to see J.P. interact with alot of the kids. From toddlers, all the way up to kids in their 40’s and 50’s!

J.P. asked if I had a camera, I did (worked at Seattle FilmWorks at the time, so got free processing of two rolls per month) Anyway, J.P. asked another guy to take our pic. I told J.P. that almost wore my Boris S Wort T-Shirt, (I seriously had thought about it) but opted for the car show themed T-shirt instead.

J.P. sez, “Well, I can tell you’re a Boris Buddy, Mike, because you didn’t shave this morning.”

The pic turned out great, (of J.P. anyway), and at my then co-worker’s suggestion, had it blown-up to a 5×7, and framed. It sits atop my entertainment center to this day.

Got to see J.P. maybe 4 or 5 more times over the next few years after that, at various events, but had a few years go by until the most recent time, at the West Seattle Grand Parade last summer.

While I was in the hospital, a friend who had been to the statue unveiling stopped by, and brought me a Tikey Turkey he’d rescued from his own yard sale. His plan was to have J.P. sign it for me, but the crowd of kids in their 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s gathering around him made it impossible.

I brought Tikey and a Sharpie with me to the parade, on the very slight chance I’d get to run up to J.P. for the autograph. Didn’t work out.

But, I was kicking myself later on, because I viewed the parade from right in front of Hiawatha, and I knew some of the staging was taking place by Safeway, but it didn’t even dawn on me that J.P. (and Pat Cashman) would be mingling in that area. :-(

Mike

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[Gina]

The best J.P./Gertrude event that I have been to was an underpublicized fundraiser for the statue at the Museum of History and Industry. A very small crowd, mostly local tv and radio people. Until the event started, people were unsure whether Mr. Wedes or Mr. Patches would be joining us. Mrs. Wedes had some interesting stories!

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