Spouse and I have a very short list of Celebrities We Have Seen In Person. In 1976 while waiting for eight hours in the Orlando airport for our honeymoon flight home, we saw a character actor who always played bad guys in Westerns. We didn’t know his name then, and we still don’t. In 1983 at the newly opened EPCOT, we saw Lloyd Bridges, who had done a narration for the American Adventure. His outfit had upgraded from his “Sea Hunt” days, but we knew who it was. In 1986 we saw Marvin Haggler dining at Quintals’ on Cape Cod. Spouse’s brother requested and received an autograph. I waited in line for an hour once to get an autograph from Tony Stewart. In 2010 while at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, we saw that guy who is on all the Disney animation documentaries, and we don’t know his name, but he is the one who always wears the big earrings. If you’ve seen a special, you know who he is. He was carrying luggage, apparently ready to settle in for a spell. All very exciting, but they are all just people like you and me.
Imagine our delight when we recently came across the real life model for another silver screen character – Roz from “Monsters, Inc.” There she was, working as a cashier at a Burger King on the New Jersey Turnpike. Spouse and I stood waiting at the counter, still unaware of the surprise in store for us. What we saw was a woman with her priorities straight; she was arranging Burger King crowns, which is way more fun than waiting on customers. Once she had finished the crowns to her satisfaction, which took about 30 seconds, she turned on us to take our order. The total came to six dollars and change, and spouse reached a twenty dollar bill toward her. “You got anything smaller?” she growled. She had to be Roz’s voice coach or maybe her twin sister. Spouse and I were too surprised to react. Sure, we could have found something smaller, maybe even exact change, but the Rozette didn’t give us a chance. She made the change while berating us because she was running out of tens. We got our change and receipt, then quickly moved down the counter away from her. She is a Burger King treasure and her name is Margie. Stop in and see her some time.
It will be hard to top Margie/Roz in the Celebrity spotting game, but we will keep looking. We may still be lucky enough to find the elusive Large Marge from “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.”
