.............When I was in High School I took trade classes to become a printer. My senior year my teacher got me a job after school with a printing company that printed dental forms, Histacount, in Melville N.Y.. I worked from 5 to midnight packing and shipping boxes. The Shipping Dept. was the only night shift and there were about 8 of us working that shift. One day one of my co-workers came in and asked ???Who???s driving that brand new Corvette that???s in the parking lot????. Well it didn???t belong to any of us and we assumed it had been stolen and left in our parking lot. When we knocked off work that night it was gone. About a week later the same guy asked ???Who???s driving that brand new Lincoln Continental that???s in the parking lot???? Again, it was none of us but the mystery was intriguing. Not long after that one of my co-workers proclaimed ???I know who???s driving those fancy cars, it???s the Janitor!??? We were all in disbelief, there was a janitor that came in for a couple of hours each night, a young, very quiet black man that never spoke to us, did his job and left. All kinds of nefarious speculation ensued.
One of my co-workers played the guitar and would bring in an acoustic to play during break time. One night the janitor approached him and asked in a very thick African accent if he could play his guitar. He proceeded to play the shit out of it and it was obvious that he was a very good guitarist. He very humbly stated that he had been a professional musician in his homeland of Nigeria and had released an album with his band. We all looked at each other with a ???Sure you did buddy??? look, doubting this seemingly outrageous claim. The next night he brought in an album and sure as shit, there was his name right on it. Even then, most of us were disbelievers thinking he just shared a name with the REAL musician, after all, he was a part time janitor. Then he told us, ???I used to host a TV show in London back when I was a teen???. WHAT!! This could not be true, we all thought. But sure as shit the next night he brought in some 8???x10??? photos of who was obviously him hosting a kids show.
At this point we all believed him but it sure did seem strange. We asked him what the hell was he doing working as a part time janitor and he said ???I was sent to the U.S. by my Father to learn how to fly jets, and I don???t know anybody here so I figured I???d get a job instead of sitting around at night getting fat!???. This was some real life ???Coming To America??? story years before that film ever came out. We became friendly after that and went to dinner a few times. The following year I went off to college and the first week in English class I wound up sitting next to a dude from Nigeria. Like an idiot I said, ???I have a friend from Nigeria and told him the dudes name???. He looked at me in disbelief and said ???You KNOW him????. I explained that I had worked with him at a printing company and he was the janitor???. He replied, ???Oh no, that is impossible, he is like Royalty in my country.??? I did my best to convince him but I don???t think he ever believed me. Truth is almost always stranger than fiction.
Postscript: Some of you are going to ask me what this gentlemen???s name is. This was exactly 40 years ago and all I remember is his name was John and his somewhat long last name started with an O. This was long before I was deeply into music and it bothers me greatly that I don???t even remember the name of the band he was in.
One of my co-workers played the guitar and would bring in an acoustic to play during break time. One night the janitor approached him and asked in a very thick African accent if he could play his guitar. He proceeded to play the shit out of it and it was obvious that he was a very good guitarist. He very humbly stated that he had been a professional musician in his homeland of Nigeria and had released an album with his band. We all looked at each other with a ???Sure you did buddy??? look, doubting this seemingly outrageous claim. The next night he brought in an album and sure as shit, there was his name right on it. Even then, most of us were disbelievers thinking he just shared a name with the REAL musician, after all, he was a part time janitor. Then he told us, ???I used to host a TV show in London back when I was a teen???. WHAT!! This could not be true, we all thought. But sure as shit the next night he brought in some 8???x10??? photos of who was obviously him hosting a kids show.
At this point we all believed him but it sure did seem strange. We asked him what the hell was he doing working as a part time janitor and he said ???I was sent to the U.S. by my Father to learn how to fly jets, and I don???t know anybody here so I figured I???d get a job instead of sitting around at night getting fat!???. This was some real life ???Coming To America??? story years before that film ever came out. We became friendly after that and went to dinner a few times. The following year I went off to college and the first week in English class I wound up sitting next to a dude from Nigeria. Like an idiot I said, ???I have a friend from Nigeria and told him the dudes name???. He looked at me in disbelief and said ???You KNOW him????. I explained that I had worked with him at a printing company and he was the janitor???. He replied, ???Oh no, that is impossible, he is like Royalty in my country.??? I did my best to convince him but I don???t think he ever believed me. Truth is almost always stranger than fiction.
Postscript: Some of you are going to ask me what this gentlemen???s name is. This was exactly 40 years ago and all I remember is his name was John and his somewhat long last name started with an O. This was long before I was deeply into music and it bothers me greatly that I don???t even remember the name of the band he was in.
