The Meet and Greet...Part 1

Kramer: George, you're becoming one of the gliterratti.
George: What's that.
Kramer: Ya' know, people who glitter...

I have been fortunate, in my various jobs, to have come in contact with some famous people, famous in there respective careers, be it atheletes, framebuilders, musicians, actors. Two that stand out are Roger DeCoster and Eddy Merckx.
Roger was a hero of mine back in the mid seventies when I worked in my family's motorcycle shop in LaPlace, La. my hometown. I met him at a meet and greet in Dallas in 1975, at a Suzuki new model show. My dad and I had our picture taken with The Man at the intro of the 1976 RM-125, Suzook's foray into a "works" production line. The photo appered in our local newspaper as a media blitz. Don't have the photo anymore - lif.
20 years later, I met Merckx at my first Interbike show in 1994, Anaheim, CA. He was promoting his products at the Gita Sporting Goods booth. As I was walking the hall, I ended up behind Merckx and decided to follow him to get peoples reaction as he walked the aisles. I imagined I was following him up a mountain pass in a race, with the crowd parting, nodding, and smiling. OK, it was alittle different than a race but you get the gist.
The reason I clumped these two together, is that they were born a year apart, in Belgium, and rose to the top of their game in the 60's and dominated in the 70's. Everyone in motocross knows Roger D and everyone in bike racing knows Eddy M, and I met them both.
Next M & G - just wait til I tell ya bout Richard Sachs.