The time I met David Halberstam

I came across a handful of famous people during my brief stint as a valet parker. There was Evander Holyfield, a world class chump who didn't tip (and I was all prepared to keep quiet about the two women he was nuzzling, neither of whom was his wife). I was left to wonder if the joint Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes left in the ashtray of her sports car was meant as a gratuity. No such questions about former Hawks coach Lenny Wilkens, who placed a hundered dollar bill in my hand the day before Christmas Eve.

He might not have been as generous, but David Halberstam, who died yesterday, was just as classy. I think he was surprised that I recognized him, considering my line of work. He was even more surprised that I didn't recognize his dinner companion.

"Would you like to meet Bob Gibson?" he asked, not knowing I was a huge baseball fan. It was cordial and brief, but it meant a lot to me.

Halberstam was one of the best reporters of his generation, chronicling generals and athletes with equal aplomb. Fitting that he died on the job, on his way to an interview with famed New York Giants QB Y.A. Tittle.

Comments

[norma]

I have bad memories of being forced to read "The Powers That Be," and analyzing it almost line by line, in one of my first media classes at Emerson. Having been scarred as such, I avoided reading anything else written by Mr. Halberstam in the 20 years since then...but it was nothing personal. What a shocking and terrible way for him to meet his end.