Monday Morning Stories With Mookie - Episode 24

The Time Mookie Saw Oliver Stone Use A Bathroom On An Airplane

This story is funny to me because of the sheer randomness of the "celebrity" involved, and where it happened.  

My wife and I were living in Colorado Springs at the time, and had flown back "home" to the Cedar Rapids area for a visit.  In making our way back to Colorado, we had a short layover/connection in St. Louis.  On the flight from Cedar Rapids to St. Louis, I was looking around the plane and seeing if there was anyone I knew on board.  I didn't see anyone I knew, but there was a "big-headed" gentleman sitting a few rows up from us that looked really familiar.  I thought about it for a few minutes, and then it hit me:  "Hey.  I bet that is Oliver Stone."

I had read in the paper the previous day that Oliver Stone would be speaking down at the University of Iowa that evening.  It made sense that he had stayed the night after his presentation, and was flying out today.  It was about then that the pilot turned off the seat belt sign ("DING"), and announced such to the plane.  Suddenly, Oliver Stone jumps up out of his seat and hurriedly comes down the aisle towards us, passes us, and heads for the bathroom in the back of the plane.  This is funny.

I lean over to "Megan(*)" and go:  "Did you see Oliver Stone?"

She goes: "No.  Where?"

So I tell her what I've seen, and explain what I read in the paper yesterday.  She is naturally skeptical, because we always point out people to each other that "look" like celebrities but aren't.  So we wait for Oliver Stone to finish his business in the can so we can made a definite identification.

Finally after several minutes, Oliver Stone piles out of the bathroom and barrels up the aisle past us and plants himself back in his seat.  I look at MEgansmiling, and she goes:  "Yeah it's him."

When we landed in St. Louis, we tried to hurry off the plane and possibly get another look at him, or maybe even talk to him.  When we exited the jet-way we both looked right and left trying to see where Oliver Stone had gone.  Finally Megangestures across the terminal and says "There he is."  Oliver Stone and his companion must have had somewhere to be in a hurry, because they were walking pretty fast and were quite a bit down the concourse already.  We opted to not chase after him, and let him continue his journey.  Meanwhile, we continued on with our journey back to Colorado, both amused at our "celebrity sighting."

In a funny ending to the story, Megan had brought along an issue of "People" magazine that I read on the flight from St. Louis to Colorado Springs.  In that magazine was an article about how Oliver Stone had been recently busted somewhere for smoking/possession of pot.  Classic.

(*) - Names changed to protect the guilty/innocent