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When I met Andy Warhol..
It was a beautiful day at Lakeside Park, my childhood swimming place with
a dance floor built over the lake.
Phil Walden, a record mogul then, but just a classmate in high school had just purchased and refurbished the teenage haunt
of my day.
It was his private party before the public opening. It was a thrill to be there, among the famous people that Phil now enjoyed
as his friends, that he had earned, a brilliant young Mind that saw the importance of these voices. He was the Man who promoted
the sounds of the South, Otis Redding,(Olan you went to high school with his children), Little Richard, then the Alman Brothers
and so on....
I moved among the crowd observing the famous faces quietly, just proud of Phil Walden and all he had accomplished, and allowing
me to be a minute part. It was a grand thrill for Macon,Georgia.
New modern picnic benches lined the shore of the lake near picnic gazebos for cooking. and tables away from the crowd to
meditate. It was at one of these tables that I sat down to rest, when another person sat down at the other end of the table.
I was busy enjoying the sounds and meditating on the moment, when I felt the need to really look at my companion on the other
end of the bench.
I recognized him immediately, it was Andy Warhol, what a fantastic moment, being an artist and sitting near this famous artist
was more than I had expected from my afternoon. My brain was swirling, I was sitting next to to him and thought about how
I had no pencil, no paper, to even ask for an autograph.
I walked over to Andy and expressed just these thoughts, as well as telling him that I was an artist also. He was kind and
asked me about my work, all the while searching about his pockets. He said "sit" and pulled an envelope out of his shirt
pocket as well as a pen, he autographed it and said, "there problem solved". I held my treasure beaming like a child. Years
later my son Olan would grow up to meet Andy working in fashion for Interview in New York. Small world.
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