Mike's Excellent Adventure to Europe 1993
Part 2: Celebrity Sighting
The first night in Germany, I didn't sleep very well. I was really tired all day, but around evening, I got really hungry. Gary and I forced ourselves to eat breakfast after we landed, and we drove over to Burger King for a quick dinner. But as I was starting to go to sleep that night around 10 PM, my body kept thinking it was around dinner time, so I got really hungry. Also, my body kept thinking it was early evening, and I just could not get to sleep, despite the fact that I had not slept for two days. So, I watched whatever was showing on the Armed Forces Channel (usually some old rerun of The Cosby Show or some other show that has been rerun a zillion times in syndication). I was lucky - I could get a couple of German stations, but since I don't know German, watching them did little for me (they were all late night talk shows).
Eventually, around 3 or 4 AM, I got to sleep. Just in time to get up around 7 to go to work.
Gary and I had agreed to meet in the front of our temporary quarters around 7:45 to drive over to the building at which we were working (it was actually a bunker). I was ready to go at around 7:30, though, so I decided I would go out front and wait for them outside.
As I was coming out of my room, I saw that the guy in the room next to me was also leaving. He was a young African-American man, about my age and height, and he had two really big bags that he was trying to carry. I decided to help him out, so I took one of his bags and carried it with me out front.
"You don't have to do that," he said.
"Oh, it's no problem," I replied. As I looked at the guy, it triggered a memory - I could have sworn I knew this guy.
"Do I know you?" I asked.
"I don't know," he replied.
"Did you go through field training with me?" I asked. I had only been in the Air Force for about three months, so the only people I would have known who weren't from my base or my ROTC detachment would have been from my field training experience.
"No," the guy replied.
So, I continued to carry his bag out front. When we got out by the curb, I sat it down. As I sat it down, I saw the name on the luggage tag, and I knew who he was.
It read "Tommy Davidson." That was where I had seen this guy! He was Tommy Davidson from In Living Color!
"Hey!" I exclaimed. "You are that guy from TV! From In Living Color!"
"You got it," he said.
I had never met anyone famous before, so I didn't know what to do.
"Hey, can we give you a ride somewhere or something?" I asked.
"No, that's okay," he replied. "They should be sending a bus to pick us up. Thanks for your help, though."
Just then, Gary came down from the room and started to get into the rental car. I said goodbye to Tommy and got in the car with Gary.
"Hey, you see that guy over there? You know who he is?" I asked him.
He looked and said he didn't.
"That's Tommy Davidson!" I replied.
"Who's that?" Gary asked.
"One of the guys on In Living Color!" I responded.
"Never heard of it," Gary said.
So, we drove over to the bunker. I was excited - finally, my trip to Europe started to get cool. I guess meeting Tommy Davidson made up for my not being able to go sight-seeing on the first day we were there.
Tommy Davidson. In case you don't
know who he is, like Gary.
I later found out that Tommy Davidson was over there with some of the members of Earth, Wind, and Fire putting on a USO show that weekend at the base. I was kicking myself for sitting in my room while I could have been over at the show. Oh, well. At least I got to meet him.