How I met Jim Marshall
I didn’t meet Jim Marshall …. Jim Marshall met ME. ;)
I walked in to start my breakfast shift at the podunk restaurant where I worked one spring (up in northern Minnesota), and Jim (along with a few other Vikes) was up to be Grand Marshall (pardon the pun!) for a winter festival in that town, as he does every year. As he also does every year, he was eating breakfast at the diner. When he saw me walk in, he called over my boss Linda, the owner (who had become a personal friend of his by this point) and said, “Who’s that waitress?? You have to introduce us. She’s beautiful.” (Linda told me alll about this later.)
Linda called me over. “X, X! C’mon over here!”
“What’s up?”
“I have to introduce you to someone. This is Jim. Jim Marshall. Do you know who he is?”
“Um, .... no?” (Let’s just say I’m woefully sports-illiterate.)
Jim took the fact that I didn’t know who he was very graciously and I think he was even quite amused (he must be hounded for autographs whenever people recognize him).
We ended up having a chat about my future plans and he gave me the names of some nice places to live pursuant to learning my career interests. Linda took our picture.
Summary: Jim Marshall: a very nice and generous man. You meet him and you know he doesn’t take life, or his success, for granted. Quite bashful to meet me, which I thought was very cute.
