well as some of you might, or might not know, William Shatner breeds horses and has a farm near Lexington. now I live in Louisville and every year the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center hosts the world famous Kentucky Horse Show.
well a few years back Mr. Shatner was in attendance. now I used to work at the fairgrounds doing temp work and during the Horse Show that year my job was to drive a special golf cart, 6 wheels and 4 seats, as a courtesy shuttle for the owners, participants and guests. well one day, guess who I get to meet...
apparently Mr. Shatner had parked one of his personal golf carts in a fire lane. with the keys in it. now in all honesty I did not recognize him. because he was missing his um, how put it, his "apprutance". he was livid.
well he flagged me down, I circled back and he was "WHERE...IS...MYGOLFCART!!!" his tempo and speech is what made me realize, "Holy sh#t!!! It's Cpt. Kirk!"
and he's still going "WHERE...IS...MY...GODDAMNEDGOLFCART!!!"
now we got briefed about how we are to treat horse show participants. the rule is to treat EVERYONE as if they are a horse owner. but the joke is, they all are horse owners, just some don't have horses.
like I said, he was livid. I began by asking "sir, where did you park your cart?" and he said; "Here! I...parked...mycart...here!" and I said "sir, are you sure?" and he was "DO...I...LOOK...LIKE...AGODDAMNEDIDIOT!!! I...PARKED...MY...GODDAMNEDGOLFCART...RIGHT...GODDAMNEDHERE!!!"
well, I replied; "sir I'm not questioning your intelligence or your integrity. I'm just trying to help you and where you said that you parked your cart is a fire lane."
he looked like someone smacked his puppy. so I then explain to him that I'd be more than glad to take him to the front office so as he could speak to the grounds security supervisor and locate his golfcart. he got in and we went on our way.
well long story short, we got his golfcart back. the security supervisor waived the $50.00 fine and to his credit Mr. Shatner was...uh...more sociable. when I took him to the lot where his cart was, I waited to make sure it was in working order and all of his and the cart's possessions were there. everything was good. but he's still looking at me funny.
I asked; "is everything o-k Mr. Shatner?"
he responded; "you don't want anything?"
I replied; "no Mr. Shatner."
he looked confounded. so I explained to him that were I to ask him for anything, an autograph, a picture, anything, I would loose my job. it may not be the greatest job or the best paying job, but it IS my job. it's the only job I have and I'm not going to jeopardize it for a moment of "fan-fever".
he just shook my hand, got into his cart and drove away.
as he drove off I swear I heard someone whistling the TOS theme track.