Thursday, April 26, 2007

Getting the mail

I went out to get the mail after putting it off for an hour, and while standing at the box this old dude comes walking along the (very) busy street saying to me how his friend dropped him off at the car repair joint up the street and he said that he was walking down to '65th'. Well, come on! 65th is 2 miles down the road. The busy road used by speeders to get from Bothell to the UW. (By the way, the speed limit on Sand Point Way is 30 mph. Honest. All the way from 125th to the North entrance of Magnusson Park ~ 30 mph. I don't go 20 mph over the limit in YOUR neighborhood so how about not doing that in mine? Thanks. ok, rant over.)

Old Dude, yeah. It was starting to rain so I offered him a ride (he looked frail enough ~ I thought I could take him if he gave me any shit) and he turned me down! Said it wasn't that far. True, not that far for someone used to walking that distance but clearly he was not. Come on, I say, let me give you a ride. I have to go run some errands anyway.

Ok, he says. Ok. I'll take you up on that.

So, we get into the Mazdaratti and he reaches out to shake my hand and says, Hi, I'm Stan Boreson.

I say, The REAL Stan Boreson?He says: What's left of him!

He's in his 80's now. That's an old photo of Stan and his lazy Basset No-mo. No-mo-shun lived 16 1/2 years, Stan used to joke, because she didn't wear out anything. She slept her whole life.

So, Seattle and those of you who grew up here in the 50's and 60's, here's a little bit of nostalgia for ya:

Zero dachus, mucho crackus
Hallaballooza bub
That's the secret password that we
Use down at the Club, and
Zero dachus, mucho crackus
Hallaballooza fan
Means now you are a member of
King's TV club with Stan!

Stan and his wife Barbara still run a tour company and are going to Europe again in the next few months. He says they've been doing it for 20 years and don't advertise or have a website but have been pretty happy with it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How cool is that, a little piece of Seattle history.

Anonymous said...

Good heavens. My kids watched him all the time they were growing up. Him and JP Patches. How cool it must have been to meet him.

vanessa said...

cool! stan sounds like chicago's frazier thomas-
http://www.chicagotelevision.com/frazier.htm

Denise said...

What a great story! I got to have dinner with Stan Boreson and No-Mo when I was little. I don't remember the whole story, somebody in the family was friends with him as I recall. Anyway, I used to have an autographed photo in my baby book but it got lost over the years.

Naomi said...

Personally I don't remember Stan but Greg does! What a great story.

The part I really like is your kindness to help someone out like that. I'm glad you sized the guy up before letting him in the Mazdaratti!

PICAdrienne said...

I was an unofficial Patches Pal, and grew up at that latter part of his tenure. Wow...that is a memory to make. So very cool.