One degree of Kevin Bacon…

While I was attending the French Culinary Institute in NYC, Candace would make the long trip from Alberta to visit. On one such visit we were wandering the streets of Soho shopping and eating. I was telling her about all the celeb-spotting around town. So when I saw Michael C. Hall from Dexter and she missed him completely, she was determined to see an A-list celeb within the next four blocks. The next eight blocks went by unadorned by celebrities and she was becoming less amused by my false sighting (eg: Keanu Reeves is a large black woman, Sarah Jessica Parker is an Asian business man, etc). Her frustration turned to hunger. 

We stopped at a nifty health place in Soho, she took the seat facing the window so she could maintain her celebrity vigile. When she non-chalantly spotted Kevin Bacon, I didn’t bother to look, imagining it must be a tall woman with braids or a large man with a beard. But she kept looking and became convinced that it actually was her childhood footloose infatuation. So when the same person walked into our restaurant, she squealed to discover that it was actually Kevin Bacon. 

But when Kevin Bacon sat down beside Candace at the adjoining table, her excitement turned to terror. The man that had been waiting for Kevin at the table beside us had witnessed our entire exchange. Trying to talk with Candace while she sat beside Kevin Bacon was impossible, so I asked for the bill and when she arrived I pulled out my wallet to pay. As I looked at the pen in one hand and my vinyl bacon-printed wallet in the other something dawned on me. 

I leaned towards Candace and said “How could I not?”

She steeled herself for the inevitable and determined it would be safer if she went to the washroom. When she left I asked Kevin Bacon to sign my bacon wallet. He was reluctant, but his friend blurted out with laughter “It’s a bacon wallet!”. 

Kevin thoughtfully wrote “Pierre, give me money. Kevin Bacon.”

When Candace came back I waited until we were outside to show her and she cried tears of laughter, joy and relief.

That night we watched ‘Footloose’.