Do You Know Who You Are?

I have always wanted to see someone famous, and be in a situation where I could good naturedly say, "Do you know who you are?!", as if I was an awe struck fan.

And the one chance I had to do this, I wimped out.

In November of 2000, a friend at church who works for NASA, got a bunch of V.I.P. passes to STS-97, a night space shuttle launch. And the V.I.P. passes put you at the closest place allowed to watch the shuttle. He gave them out to church members and family who wanted to go.

We all met at the church, and from my family, only Number 2 Daughter (N2D) and Myself were going.

We travelled up to the Visitor's Center for Kennedy Space Center, and from there we were bussed over to the viewing stands, right next to that building that has an actual Saturn V booster inside. We bought some food and drink, and then went outside in the stands to wait.

Over time the stands filled up, and then at around 10:00pm, the shuttle went up.

I will never forget this. It is truly a sight to behold, and hear, to witness a night space shuttle launch.

Of course Number 2 Daughter had run off with some other kids, being bored and all, and I told her to meet me at the bus after the launch.

One problem. They had moved and re-arranged all of the busses while we were watching the launch.

Now I was praying that she would remember the bus number we were on, because you had to go back to your car at the Visitor Center on the same bus you left on.

I'm tall, so I found our bus right away, and started a vigil, standing as tall as possible right beside our bus door so N2D could find me, instead of me running around and looking for her.

So I'm standing there, and people are streaming by, all confused because no one expected them to move the busses, and looking back and forth, in the 'row' I was standing in, for N2D.


I'm looking closely at everyone, when I see about 20 paces away, a guy that looks JUST LIKE PETER FRAMPTON! (Ok, youngsters, Peter Frampton was a 16 year old wunderkind on the guitar in England with his first band The Herd, and became famous as a part of the 60's group, Humble Pie. In the 70's he released what is still the largest selling live album ever, called "Frampton Comes Alive". It was a monster of a success and he had a lot of charted songs in the 70's, maybe into the 80's. He bowed to record company pressure and started trying to get sales based on his good looks, instead of just trying to keep putting out good music, and flopped. But he's still been doing music all of these years, and is still considered a guitar hero. Certainly he's one of mine.)

Anyway, here comes Peter Frampton (I'm pretty sure) and he's talking to a dark haired teenaged girl. She says something, and he grins and laughs.

This CONVINCES me that it's him. He's one of those people that grins and shows every tooth in his head, and he has a husky voice and a British accent. (He looks quite different than in is heyday, what hair he has is gray and cut really short. But I had seen him in guitar magazines and I knew what he looked like now.)

I pat my shirt. No pen or pencil.

I look in my pockets. Nope. No paper either.

Crikey mates! An engineer with not one pen or pencil? It's an outrage! A "real" engineer would never be caught pen-less!


Plus he's walking by now, with the girl, and I didn't want to stop them, in the middle of his conversation, around the throngs of people looking for their moved busses, so I just watch.

They walk on by, never once looking at me. And N2D finally shows up (phew!).

On the bus, everyone's talking about how they got to meet Jeb Bush (W's brother and the Florida governor) but I'm just riding along only half-way listening.

I didn't meet Jeb, but I saw Peter Frampton. I just couldn't tell anyone, because hey, these folks I'm with from church most likely don't have a clue as to who Peter Frampton is.

Had he been alone, I would have said something to him. But like I said, he was in an animated conversation with this girl, so I held back.

I told Lovely Wife, and a few others about it. And then several months later, I don't know what channel it was on, but there was a biography of Peter Frampton on television. I think it was a Biography on A&E.

I watched the whole thing, and at the end, they showed a picture of Peter, his Wife, and Step-Children. The oldest step child was the teenage girl I saw him with that night.

So I'm personally convinced that I saw Guitar Great Peter Frampton. At a space shuttle launch of all places.

But I didn't have the guts to go up and interrupt his conversation and shake his hand, much less ask, "Do you know who you are?!"