I forgot all about with my encounter with
Tom Jackson.
It was my first winter up in Canada working back in '94. I was taking a flight from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Victoria, British Columbia.
The flight was canceled due to high winds and blizzard conditions. So Air Canada was gracious enough to bus all the waiting passengers to the local hotels and put us up for the night.
All the hotels were full so we had to be bussed to Regina about 2 1/2 hours away. lol
Anyways I was standing outside having a smoke and drinking a Tim Horton's coffee when a huge guy came up to me and ask if I was waiting on the bus/shuttle and when it was suppose to arrive. Soon as I opened my mouth he said, "Your from the US aren't you?".
He offered me a Canadian cigarette and we chatted some about the weather etc. for another 20 minutes.
During that time about 15 people came up and ask for his autograph. Each time he smiled and said sure without an ounce hesitation.
During the whole time we continued to to chat it up. Some guy came up to him and said, "All the rental cars are gone."
He was his agent. I didn't know this at the time.
So being inquisitive I excused myself and wondered to the ticket counter. A ploy to call my girlfriend at the time, now my wife Jen. I described him and what was going on. She freaks out, "Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god That's Tom Jackson!!" I was said, "Who?" lmao
She said get his autograph for me. I was like, "Hey, what the hell" and went back outside to have another smoke.
I casually walked over to Tom and chatted some more. He looked at me and said, "You don't have any clue who I am do you?" I said politely, "Not at all." and we both laughed. Tom said, "Good" with a friendly smile and we talked about my job and his.
We ended up being seat buddies on the bus to Regina and Jen was calling me up every 10 minutes. geezz it was embarrassing.
After about the 10th cell call Tom set her up.
He answered my phone for me.
I swear to this day I never heard another women scream as loud as she did!
He chatted with her for like 5 minutes and even offered to pay for the cellular time which I politely declined.
While on the phone with Jen he said, "So I hear you wanted my autograph?". He broke out a pen and wrote on a piece of paper...
"Hi Jennifer, it was an real pleasure talking with you on the telephone. Your friend, Tom"
After finishing his convo with Jen he gave me the paper. It was written on a page 34 of "Great Canadian Ghost Stories" which was airing in '95.
An all around great guy!
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