Yea McRaney! - a Sandy Herrold Tale
Fall 1999.
Sandy and I are taking a class with Jonathan Banks, who we LOVE (and who we love even more because he's so nice and real and great).
Jon had gotten a gig on a sitcom, so Sandy and I got passes and went to CBS-Radford, stood in line, and entered with the studio audience (gracelessly avoiding certain other fans we were feuding with who had also decided to show up for the pilot ep). The sitcom was called "Women of the House," and it starred Delta Burke.
It didn't occur to us that Mrs. Burke's husband would be there, but yep, as the warm-up guy is trying to incite the crowd, Gerald McRaney walks into the stands and across the front row. I gasp and point, say, "Look! Gerald McRaney!"
Sandy--dear, perfect Sandy--stands up on the bleachers, cups her hands around her mouth, and shouts at the top of her singing lungs, "YEA MCRANEY!"
He looks over.
Well, *everyone* looks over.
But when Gerald McRaney looks over we laugh and wave, and somehow we end up chatting with him briefly: "loved you in 'Simon and Simon'; thanks for coming to the show". Really deep, profound stuff like that.
We laughed most of the way home. Sandy realized she'd just talked to a man about whom she had written slash. I realized that the idea hadn't hit Sandy until that moment, that I'd written probably 40 Wiseguy stories, featuring the guy we'd been taking an acting class from for the past many weeks.... Love is blind.
That was well over a decade ago, but seeing Gerald McRaney guest-host on "Longmire" brought her voice back like she was there again, shouting right next to my ear; it brought back the giddiness, the joy, the laughter.
I've been loving memories like that when they come up, and I'll be looking for more memories like those over the next few days, as July 19 (the first "anniversary") approaches. All joy: the secrets, the late-night talks and walks, the trips, the laughter, the singing... that's the stuff worth remembering. It's the stuff I'll never forget.
cross-posted from dreamwidth. http://charlottechill.dreamwidth.org/17683.html#comments