The year was 1968. I was at work at St.
Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix. It was lunch time and I decided to go out
for lunch instead of eating in the employee cafeteria. Normally this would have meant a trip across
the street to the Park Central shopping center and the hot dog stand Fat
Frank's. Fat Frank's had great hot dogs
but today I wanted something different.
I knew of a walk-up hamburger stand a few blocks away due east of the
hospital. Not a very fancy place. You walk up to the counter, make your order
and wait right there for the food.
Then sit at some outside picnic-style tables to eat in the heat.
When I arrived there were
lots of people standing around the periphery of the hamburger joint. There were professional Hollywood-style movie
cameras, big Hollywood-style lights, Hollywood-style light-reflecting screens,
and like I said, lots of people. I
noticed that there weren't any people at the ordering window. Great, no line. Plus only two of the tables had people: one table with a woman and small child and
several tables away was a slender woman with long black hair.
I ordered my hamburger, got
it, and sat a picnic table to eat. No
one else came up to the window. After
finishing my hamburger I went to my jeep (no top on the jeep) and sat there
waiting to see what was going to happen.
There were people in front of the hamburger stand leaning against the
wall.
One guy left the group and
walked across the patio to me. He said
that he was with Sonny of Sonny and Cher who were making a movie and that Sonny
was going to be taking a trip to Hawaii
and he wanted to drive one of those jeeps that have the red and white canvas
shade tops. He wanted to know if I knew
where Sonny could get one for when he was in Hawaii.
I looked over at Sonny and he was staring at me. The most striking thing about him was his
small dark eyes. I told the man that I
didn't know and he went back and told Sonny Bono. Then Sonny lost interest in me. I guess that he had his assistant ask me that
question because I was sitting in a jeep.
I left shortly to get back to
work. When I got back to the hospital and
told my coworkers that Sonny and Cher were
making a movie at the hamburger stand, three or four of the girls screamed and
ran out the back door to go see them. I
had no idea who Sonny and Cher were. I asked my coworkers and they told me who
they were. How could I not know who
Sonny and Cher were? At the time I was either working (night),
attending college classes (day), studying
at home (weekends), or sleeping. I
spent the week-ends on the couch with textbooks on the coffee table in front of
me studying. I would study all day
long. I had to. During the week when my classmates were studying
I was working. The weekends were my chance to catch up on the
class work.
The movie that Sonny and Cher were making was called Chastity.
So that was my encounter with
the real life Sonny and Cher. It sounds strange, especially the question
about the jeep and Hawaii,
but it is all true. Trivia question. Can anyone guess what this St. Joseph's coin was used for?
Have a nice day wherever you
may be. Lew
