captain_slinky | 208 - My Christmas Celebrity Encounter featuring BURL IVES!

Have I ever told you my story about Burl Ives? Every time I tell it, I'm pretty sure it changes a little bit... but the basics of it stay the same so I'll tell it again :)

The picture up there is of Folksinger/Songwriter/Actor Burl Ives, who is probably most famous for being the voice of "Sam The Snowman" in the Rankin-Bass classic "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer". When he retired, he moved to my home town of Anacortes, Washington, on Fidalgo Island ("Gateway to the San Juan Islands, where whales roam free and dreams come true, all on the coast of the Pacific-blue").

Every year he would put up giant plywood cut-outs of the entire Rudolph gang along the gates of his beautiful house facing out towards Oakes Avenue, and it was just really neat to know that *that* was where Sam The Snowman lived :)

One dark, snowy, stormy night, my pregnant friend and I were driving along Oakes Avenue when one of the wheels on the car FELL OFF. Lucky for us, we were able to keep the car under control and coast to a safe stop just about a quarter-mile away from the house of Burl Ives! We bundled up and walked through the dark and the snow, just me and this pregnant lady in the middle of the night, and finally made it to the front gate. We pressed the buzzer and explained what had happened and asked if they could help.

There was a long stretch of silence as we stood and waited for a reply.

And then, wouldn't you believe it, but BURL IVES HIMSELF sent his assistant to inform us that if we did not vacate the property immediately they would be calling the police and pressing charges.

TRUE STORY!