On Sunday I met up with my sisters and had brunch at a beautiful gardening place with cafe, and got to talk for hours with them. Afterwards, my sister’s husband mentioned that back in the early 1980s, in their old apartment complex he'd spent an evening at a neighbor renter's place and the neighbor turned out to be Stephen King, who was there for a short while. He’d introduced himself as “Steve” and my BIL didn’t recognize him, had no idea who he was. Also there were George Romero and Tom Savini.

My BIL knew who these two were, since Pittsburgh is closely connected with Romero and his movies. Night Of The Living Dead, for example, was filmed here, and the TV reporter in the movie was our real TV newsman Bill Cardille — who in the 1960s had started hosting a TV horror film show, but had remained a news anchor too.

My sister and BIL’s apartment complex happened to be in Monroeville, PA, right next to the Mall where the movie Dawn Of The Dead had been filmed. The trio of famous guys was working on the movie Creepshow at the time. My BIL remembered King as being a really good guy to talk to.

I never meet celebrities — oh, except for when I had a thing signed by Ivana Trump when she came to that same Mall, where I was working. I didn’t care about her but thought my sister might be interested in an autograph. Ivana had a line of skincare products she was promoting then. In person, she was actually far prettier than any photo I’ve ever seen. Very petite, perfect skin, delicate features, and tan. Her photos never look like that. And the night she was at J.C. Penneys signing autographs, it was midwinter and we had a blizzard. I do know she and her entourage did NOT leave early, which was brave. I don’t know how well her limo did getting out of there, but I remember it took hours for me to drive home in the snow. Silly of her to allow herself to be buried in a tacky golf course.