My Late Night Encounter with Superman!

Dear Diary (1988),

I am working  one of my first transcontinental DC-10 red-eye flights from LAX to JFK and we are about 30 minutes to landing. I am still in shock from my encounter with Superman himself, Christopher Reeve. I was pretty starstuck with I saw him board. Immediately I asked on of the more senior flight attendants if it would be appropriate for me to ask him for his autograph. She said, “Sure, but you have to get all of us one. Just hand him a piece of paper with all of our names on it and an address to mail the autographed photos. He’ll just give it to his publicist.” Well, she must have known what she was talking about right?

I got everyone’s name on a sheet of paper with my address to mail the photos and I gathered up my nerve to approach Superman. “Hello Mr. Reeve(s)” I said, knees buckling. I don’t know why I added the “s” and it was not a lisp, OK! I just thought for some reason it was Reeves instead of Reeve. I continued “We’re all big fans of yours and would really appreciate autographs”.  ”My name is Reeve, R-E-E-V-E, not Reeves! You need to learn to read!” he yelled.

My little 20 year old self was shocked, but not shocked enough to take my paper back from him. We did not want his autograph after all. I learned that night that all celebrities are not able to leap tall buildings in single bound. Well it’s almost time to land…I have to give Mr. Reeve his cape back.