American Graffiti

What are the odds? Bethy and I went up to Santa Rosa late this afternoon. I drove her there for a disability qualification medical exam. The doctor was a complete and utter a**h*le. Beth has a debilitating and very serious illness called Diffused System Scleroderma and the doctor in question just reamed her out. She was in tears when we left.

On the way home, we decided to stop at Cattlemen's Restaurant in Petaluma and have drinks and prime rib. While we were eating, we heard a lot of noise coming from the banquet room. Turns out, it was a reunion party for the cast of American Graffiti. We saw Cindy Williams, Candy Clark and a whole lot people who looked familiar but whose names escaped us (individually and collectively). On our way out, we stopped and chatted with Paul Le Mat who played the cool guy, John Miner, in the film (I think Jerry Murphy may have based his character, Butch Whacks, on John). Paul was really nice and Beth was ecstatic when he let her give him a kiss on the cheek.

The best part, though, was the parking lot - full of those classic cars from the film, including the Thunderbird that Suzanne Sommers drove. I took a picture of Beth with that T Bird (red fuzzy dice and all) and here it is (you can barely make out the license plate, GRAFITI). Paul told us the people who own the car now are the same people who owned it when they made the film and that they live in Riverside (I think, maybe it was San Bernardino) and drove up here for the party. Paul said they do this every year. How fun!