The Waltons

I used to bartend in one of the best steakhouses in NYC. It is The Palm one on second avenue. I met every kind of celebrity and famous person in there, after a while they just become another customer and you just hope that A) they dont annoy you overmuch and B) they actually tip you.

I met everyone from Martha Stewart, to Matt Dillon to Art Garfunkel (a regular)

Rule number one is you never rat out a customer, I never spoke Ill of any famous customer or dished dirt on anyone.

I will say this, Art Garfunkel was a really nice guy who used to play chess at my bar with his son. I liked Art.

Yesterday I was in little Italy and I stopped in for a beer to a cafe after a long day of running all over NYC. I stood at the counter and ordered a beer and a guy next to me with his family said hello. It turns out it was Richard Thomas from the Walton's. As A kid in a tiny town in Texas my family would gather round the tube and watch the Waltons, a very southern thing to do...I always looked up to the character John Boy because I thought he was a good person and it seemed to me as a kid it was a good way to be in life. (of course I turned into a crazy artist but I still try to be a good soul.) I wound up talking to him and his family for about ten minutes and they were as nice as the Waltons were--- I even drew a cartoon for his son...They were really good people and I actually asked him for an autograph for my mother. I dont ask for autographs, ever, as a rule but it was for my mom so I forgive myself. I have a big part of my soul that craves a simpler America, an america that used to be. The Waltons were about that time and palce when people actually had time to be people and not hurried and worried scavangers chasing after the next material thing they decide they need. I was very happy that Mr. Thomas seemed to be every bit as nice as his TV role and his family was the same. Sometimes you find moments
of hope in all the mess of the Urban- modern rat race.


Thanks, John Boy.