Milwaukee used to host the annual Great Circus Parade through the streets of downtown. It was a wonderful event that encompassed many days leading up to the big day. The antique circus wagons would be loaded onto a train at Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin and take a circuitous route through the state before reaching the Milwaukee lakefront to prepare for the parade. They would set up a small circus on the staging grounds in the days leading up to the parade.
The parade itself was always a spectacle; dozens of completely restored antique circus wagons being pulled by teams of horses through downtown Milwaukee. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets; some staking out their prime viewing spot days in advance of the big day. PBS broadcast the parade for several years. Their broadcast was hosted by none other than Bob Keeshan; Captain Kangaroo himself!
Diane's brother worked in one of the office buildings along the parade route. The building owners set up bleachers and offered reserved tickets to their tenants. Dick managed to get six tickets so Diane and I went with her parents and Dick and Carol.
Having reserved seats meant we could wander around before the parade without fear of losing our coveted viewing spot. One year, I took Diane down to the PBS broadcast truck to see if any of the folks I knew were working on the broadcast. I stopped short on our way back to the bleachers when I saw Bob Keeshan standing in the street going over his notes with the producer.
There he was... Captain Kangaroo IN THE FLESH!!!!!!!!!!!! He wasn't in his Captain Kangaroo costume, of course, but there was not mistaking that the hero of my childhood was standing a mere fifty feet from me.
I immediately did what any "normal" person would do... I said, "C'mon, Diane!!! Let's go meet Captain Kangaroo!!!!!"
Diane was appalled. We couldn't just jump over the police barricade and walk up to Captain Kangaroo in the middle of the street!!!
Well, I must admit that I embarrassed Diane a bit. I worked with many celebrities during my years in broadcast engineering work and it really isn't a big deal to see them away from the set. Most of them fall into one of two camps; they're just normal people who aren't really looking for a lot of attention, or total knobs who you don't want to acknowledge in public anyway for fear of them opening their mouths.
But Captain Kangaroo was different. This was Captain Kangaroo; not some celebrity wannabe.
I grabbed Diane's hand, jumped over the police barricade and walked right up to him in the middle of the street. I shook his hand, introduced myself and proclaimed my undying admiration for his role as Captain Kangaroo. He autographed a scrap of paper I found on the broadcast desk. His autograph was not Bob Keeshan; no, his signature read Captain Kangaroo!!!
I thanked him for allowing me to interrupt him and we made our way back toward the bleachers.
Diane was SO embarrassed by the whole episode that she felt the need to report my actions to the rest of the family as soon as we made it back to our seats. Her plan seemed to backfire, though, when all of the people who overheard her report got very excited about the prospect of seeing Captain Kangaroo! People passed around the autographed scrap of paper; excited just to have a vicarious connection to the man they adored as children. Several people raced off in the direction of the broadcast desk in hopes of seeing him for themselves, but he had already gone by the time they arrived.
Many years have passed since that encounter with Bob Keeshan. That scrap of paper is still in the top drawer of my dresser. Sometimes I think back to that day and I am still amazed that I had the opportunity to shake Captain Kangaroo's hand and chat with him for just a moment to tell him - as I'm sure he heard thousands of times throughout his life - how much of an impact he made on my young life.
Kids today have missed out on so much just by missing out on seeing Bob Keeshan transformed into the ultimate communicator with kids as Captain Kangaroo.
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