I pity the fool who don’t have closure

When I was 12, my family went camping at a site up near Malibu, and the highlight of the trip was when I ran across the cast of The A-Team shooting some footage on the outskirts of the campground.  Needless to say, I hung out for hours until the shoot was done, and then I worked up the courage to ask each of the cast members for their autograph.  And each one of them, from Hannibal to Face Man to Howling Mad Murdock were kind enough to oblige this little dorky fan even though they’d had a long day’s shoot.  But my favorite cast member was B.A. Barracus, played by Mr. T, the muscle of the group, unafraid of anything other than flying.  And, it would turn out, he was also afraid of signing autographs, since Mr. T had his bodyguards push me out of the way so he could make it to his car unimpeded.

Well, today, some 23 years later, I was having lunch @ a deli near McArthur Park and who should be sitting near me but Mr T.  I thought about asking for a photo of us together, but my inner twelve year old chickened out, so I just asked if it really was him.  The intervening years had drastically altered his opinion of the burdens of being a celebrity, as he graciously shook my hand and thanked me for approaching him.  I wanted to remind him of the camping anecdote, but I thought that he might not remember it as much as I do, since it was probably a bigger deal for me than him.  Oh well, at the very least I can finally scratch “Find Mr. T - Exact Vengeance” off my life’s to do list.