What it was like to ‘meet’ Ted Williams

In September of 1954 I had just completed my recruit training in the U.S. Navy and was on a train from San Diego to Maryland. There were several of us on the train and myself and another kid were sitting in the dome car of the train as it ran from Chicago to Baltimore. The other kid was speaking to a gentleman on the other side of the aisle, and during the conversation I asked the gentleman what he did for a living. He smiled a great big smile and told me that he was a newspaper reporter. I felt that he was pulling my leg but I did not say anything. As the other kid and I left the dome car, I asked the kid, “Who was that guy anyway?” He said, “My God, that was Ted Williams. Didn’t you recognize him?” I was just a kid from the mountains of Western North Carolina and was never supposed to meet someone as famous and well known as he was to the world. I have never forgotten it, though.

Arlington