We’d like to thank Todd for the following story.
When I was about 8 or 9 years old (I’m 44 now) I was at an Aberdeen, Washington baseball camp – I believe the team was The Chokers (it was a logging town in those days). Bill Murray, famous at the time for Saturday Night Live, was a guest baseball coach. I believe Meatballs was also getting ready to come out, so my timeline may be off a bit.
I knew him from Saturday Night Live because my dad always had us watch it when we were kids. I was able to get his autograph, but over the years I lost it. There was even a skit on SNL called “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” that included this baseball camp in the video. Wish I could meet him again to get his autograph and a photo I lost so many years ago.
That’s your story? *eyeroll*
I think it was 1979. I thought for some reason Bill was traveling with the Bellingham Mariners. I was 10 years old at the time and lived in Walla Walla when Bill and his team came to play the Padres. I got his autograph and also, having older brothers and sisters that were fans of SNL, I would stay up on saturdays to soak up much of the comedy that was over my head but i would still laugh at the Bill and Gilda skits and mimic Todd and he always tried to get Lisa to put out. Anyway, at this particular ballgame, I was dressed to the nines and had put on some of my brothers aftershave to try and impress a girl at the park. When I went to get Bills autograph, he was like, “Whoa, hey Chief, did you bath in that Old Spice or what?” We both laughed and he signed my program, which somehow, even after moving 20 times since then, I still have it. Thanks Todd for jogging my memory.
As a teenager in the 1980’s I attended an all girls high school in the same suburb Bill Murray grew up in. My freshman year Bill’s sister, a nun whom I hear he and their family affectionately call “my sister the sister” taught my acting class.She was and is,well loved by us all, so much fun like him with those blue eyes, a big heart and infectious energy. Sometimes she spoke of him in class, a huge movie star even then. Two years later at 16 yrs. old, my Dad died suddenly and she volunteered to console me personally. I was terribly dazed and distraught,but she said one line that changed my life- “Bill was 16 when our father died.” Suddenly I had hope to be able to recover and move on. He was my fav actor and huge in his career, beloved by my friends who quoted Caddyshack constantly. If he could move on so could I.From then on over the years I have dreams in which I have conversations with him that always calm me. Hoped to meet him one day, later also becoming friends with one of their cousins, but still haven’t seen him in person-only in those comforting dreams.