...And Jesse walks in!

Being located at the Center of the Universe here at Broadway and Columbus, SF, USA, you never know who is going to wander thru the door at The Beat Museum. This week it was Jesse Ventura, former Pro Wrestler and Governor of Minnesota.

See, it was a busy day (August being our busiest month due to so many tourists) and around 2 pm there was a lull in the action so I stepped next door to buy my 99 cent bag of potato chips lunch. As I stepped onto Broadway this guy caught my attention due to the words written on his T-shirt - UDT-Seal Teams. I wondered what the UDT stood for and then moved onto other thoughts.

When I got back thirty seconds later and half way through lunch I saw the guy standing in our foyer admiring the '41 Pontiac that now greets every visitor. "Hey, welcome, where you from?" I asked him in a way similar to how I say hello to everyone."

"Well, I live in Mexico but I'm from Minnesota, " he said.

And as soon as I heard his voice I couldn't help but ask, "Are you Jesse?"

"Yeah," he smiled, taking off his ball cap and showing me his bald dome with long hair along the sides. "It was the voice, wasn't it? You didn't recognize me until you heard my voice, right?"

"Yeah, that's true. I've never seen you with hair." I laughed and took off my own ball cap.

"When I left office as Governor I had dreadlocks put into my hair and I drove all over Minnesota on my motorcycle for months and nobody ever recognized me and nobody heard my voice because nobody wanted to speak to me because I was a big guy with dreadlocks on a motorcycle. It was great!"

"That sounds like an interesting experience."

"It was. You wanna know the worst part about dreadlocks? They're heavy. They really weigh you down, especially when they get wet like when you get out of the shower."

"Makes sense. So, what are you doing in San Francisco?"

"Well, we just finished filming a segment for a TV show and I have a few hours before my flight so I asked the driver to bring me to North Beach?"

"Do you know anything about the Beats?"

"Well, I've heard of this guy Ferlinghetti before but I can't remember from where?"

So, Jesse and I talked for another half hour. I really liked the guy. Very open and communicative. We talked politics and current events. He told me about his life and I told him about mine. We talked about our mutual background in theatre and I told him the story of the Beats and the 'HOWL' trial and On the Road.

"So, what got you into Wrestling?"

"I couldn't sing and I couldn't dance." he laughed.

"You've used that line before, haven't you?"

"Yeah, it's my standard answer, but it's true. I wanted to do something where I could use my body physically and also be a performer. Wrestling let me do both."

"How'd you come up with the personality of Jesse Ventura?"

"I stole it from a guy named Billy Graham. Nice guy, still alive."

People started wandering in at this point and Jesse grabbed a copy of On The Road and said, "I think I'm going to check out that City Lights across the street. I've got to find out who that guy Ferlinghetti is." We said our goodbye's and he walked out onto Broadway.

An hour later it was busy again. I'm running around talking to people, advising them on books and movies, ringing up six visitors at once and Jesse walks back in.

"Hey, Jesse, what brings you back?"

"I was just getting ready to go to the airport but I had to tell you - I was wandering around City Lights and it suddenly struck me where I'd seen Ferlinghetti - it was in the movie 'The Last Waltz' - he's the poet who comes on stage, that's where I saw him."

"Oh, yeah - Dylan, Minnesota - makes sense."

"Yeah, so I had to tell you."

"Well, thanks, I appreciate that. Hey Jesse, one last thing - what's the UDT stand for on your shirt?"

"Underwater Demolition Team."

Jesse Ventura - a real nice regular guy.