# Second- or third-hand brushes with history **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 22, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921 "2016-01-22T23:46:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/141 "2016-02-26T03:13:55Z")
Another one that sort of counts is I stood in the room that Karl Marx was born in, in Trier, Germany. The house is a museum now. Or was 30 years ago. I suppose it still is. ---
**Author:** ![IT\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3ec8ea/32.png) [@IT\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IT_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/142 "2016-02-26T03:25:44Z")
Let’s see; I think I have two. My maternal grandfather grew up with Ty Cobb. My mother-in-law is a (retired) Chinese Red Army Air Force general, and knew Mao Zedong. Also, when my wife was about two, her mother took her to meet the head of the family. The family is Manchu: Aisin Gioro, Yellow Banner; the head of the family was Puyi - the last emperor of China. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/143 "2016-02-26T10:10:47Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I chiseled my own piece of the Berlin Wall. My folks did that too, on their first trip to Germany. They took video of a young man standing there with hammers in one hand and long metal chisels in the other, renting them out to tourists who wanted their own piece of history. You could hear “chink, chink, chink…” in the background as the wall was coming apart. On a Friday afternoon they ran into a traffic jam on the autobahn, of all places. They needed to get to Berlin before the banks closed, to get some cash. Although the wall was down their credit cards and traveler’s checks wouldn’t yet work in what had been the eastern sector. Dad took video of the stopped traffic, people out of their cars and walking around. Some young people asked them “Are you going to the concert?” “UH, what concert?” my folks replied. "“Pink Floyd is doing _The Wall_!” I doubt my folks knew who the band was, much less what they were playing. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/144 "2016-02-26T13:02:57Z")
> [@Doyle](#): > > I had dinner with Vincent Price. _The_ Vincent Price? I ask because of a bar bet. I told someone that the guy at the end of the bar was Michael Douglas. Although the guy was distinguished looking and was wearing a suit (the only suit in the bar) my bluff was called and my bet accepted. We walked over to the guy and I asked him if he’d be so kind as to show us his driver’s license. Yep, he was Michael Douglas. I collected my $20 and bought the accountant a drink, just as I’d done several other times. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/145 "2016-02-26T13:05:35Z")
You couldn’t be bothered to buy Michael Douglas a drink? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/146 "2016-02-26T13:07:21Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > You couldn’t be bothered to buy Michael Douglas a drink? I did. He was the accountant. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/147 "2016-02-26T14:30:33Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > My folks did that too, on their first trip to Germany. They took video of a young man standing there with hammers in one hand and long metal chisels in the other, renting them out to tourists who wanted their own piece of history. You could hear “chink, chink, chink…” in the background as the wall was coming apart. > > On a Friday afternoon they ran into a traffic jam on the autobahn, of all places. They needed to get to Berlin before the banks closed, to get some cash. Although the wall was down their credit cards and traveler’s checks wouldn’t yet work in what had been the eastern sector. Dad took video of the stopped traffic, people out of their cars and walking around. Some young people asked them “Are you going to the concert?” “UH, what concert?” my folks replied. "“Pink Floyd is doing _The Wall_!” > I doubt my folks knew who the band was, much less what they were playing. I managed to wrangle a 4 day pass to go to the concert. I was stationed in Mainz. Even though the Wall was down and civilians could travel freely between East and West, soldiers had to go through checkpoints Alpha and Bravo. I was stuck at Alpha for 8 hours. I still have my transit documents stamped by the Soviets. Maybe I bumped into your parents. ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/148 "2016-02-26T15:24:09Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > _The_ Vincent Price? > > I ask because of a bar bet. I told someone that the guy at the end of the bar was Michael Douglas. Although the guy was distinguished looking and was wearing a suit (the only suit in the bar) my bluff was called and my bet accepted. > > We walked over to the guy and I asked him if he’d be so kind as to show us his driver’s license. Yep, he was Michael Douglas. I collected my $20 and bought the accountant a drink, just as I’d done several other times. He was reading _The Raven_ at the symphony of which my mother was the president at the time. So we had the honors. Circa: 1976 ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/149 "2016-02-26T15:47:40Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > :dubious: A good friend of mine with a 4 year old daughter also lived close by and gave updates via Facebook. :dubious: Heyyyy…do we need to do a friend-check??? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/150 "2016-02-26T16:00:07Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Heyyyy…do we need to do a friend-check??? :eek: First initial “E”. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/151 "2016-02-26T23:09:24Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I managed to wrangle a 4 day pass to go to the concert. I was stationed in Mainz. Even though the Wall was down and civilians could travel freely between East and West, soldiers had to go through checkpoints Alpha and Bravo. I was stuck at Alpha for 8 hours. I still have my transit documents stamped by the Soviets. Maybe I bumped into your parents. Maybe!😃 It’s a small world, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/152 "2016-02-28T04:11:46Z")
According to family legend my Great Grandmother was supposed to travel from Finland to England and then to North America. Before she left, she found out someone else from her village was travelling to Canada, and changed her ticket to go to Halifax instead of New York. The ship she allegedly missed? The RMS Titanic. My dad doesn’t believe it, but his mother and all her sisters always talked about how Nanny nearly was on the Titanic. Oh, and I remember my great grandmother well, she lived until I was 12, although she had a stroke a few years previous and she had lost most of her English. ---
**Author:** ![appleaday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@appleaday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleaday)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/153 "2016-02-28T05:50:22Z")
My uncle was a high school teacher. Jimi Hendrix was one of his students; there’s a rumor that he allowed Hendrix to play his guitar during class time, but I have a hard time believing that. Back when I worked at Sea-Tac airport, Red Skelton disembarked and caused a bit of a stir. I didn’t see him, myself, but there was a guy waving his arm around and exclaiming “I shook Red Skelton’s hand! Look here – this is the hand that touched Red Skelton!” I saw Goldie Hawn exiting a stage door. I ate lunch once in a restaurant at the same time as Stanley Kramer. Noticed him as I was leaving. A couple of months later, I attended one of his lectures. One of my high school teachers once took a class taught by Theodore Roethke. She said he was kind of temperamental. I once had a neighbor who was a counter-culture type. In his apartment, he had a prominently displayed photo of a very square, clean-cut man and boy posing with J. Edgar Hoover. To my surprise, he told me that the man and boy was, in fact, his father and himself. His Dad once worked for the FBI; having a photo taken with Hoover was considered an honor. My neighbor kept the photo as a sort of joke. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/154 "2016-02-28T06:12:51Z")
When I was living in the Los Angeles area, I saw a few celebrities every now and then, but I just let them be, I figured they probably preferred being left alone. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921/155 "2016-02-28T15:15:16Z")
> [@appleaday](#): > > My uncle was a high school teacher. Jimi Hendrix was one of his students; there’s a rumor that he allowed Hendrix to play his guitar during class time, but I have a hard time believing that. Now that you mention it, I did know Buddy Holly’s shop teacher. He said Buddy used to stay home sick a lot. My friend said he would drive over to Buddy’s house, and his mother would always tell him Buddy was sick that day and couldn’t go to school, and he would hear someone strumming a guitar inside the house. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-or-third-hand-brushes-with-history/743921.md?page=7)