When my mom met Tom Landry and Mean Joe Green - Dallas Cowboys Forum

Scotman · 08-13-2005

I'm just relating a couple of stories my mom told me. Thought y'all might get a kick out of them. They serve no other purpose.

My mom used to work at a place called the Stagecoach Inn in Salado, TX about 20 years ago. Being an established business, they used to get some pretty famous people coming in to eat. My mom met a couple of them when she was working as a seating hostess.

The first was Tom Landry. You know you read everywhere that Landry was a nice guy. The reporters all sing his praises. All the players say he was a tremendous man. Yada, yada, yada. You know what he was like to people like my mom. People waiting on him. People who were serving him. Just exactly like you'd hope. His reservation had actually been given to another group. Yes, this even happened to folks like him. My mom got the unfortunate duty of telling him that he and his party would have to wait. If you've ever been to the Stagecoach Inn, you know that can take a bit. My mom said he was just as gracious and pleasant during his 20 minute wait as you could ever hope he'd be.

The second one was Mean Joe. Mean Joe is from the central Texas area. My mom had no clue who he was as she didn't watch football. Her job was to seat people. Naturally, you'd seat the people with reservations when they came in. The rest waited in line. On a very busy night, with a very long line, Mean Joe comes in with a small group and walks straight to the front of the line. Now, you've got to picture this to get a clear understanding of the whole thing. My mom stands 5'3" in her shoes and goes a whopping 110 pounds after supper. Also, understand that Mean Joe had made reservations under the name Joe Green. As he approached my mother, he told her that, and I quote, "I'm mean Joe and we'd like to see if we can get a table." Of course, he assumed she would know that he meant Mean Joe Green. 'Cause everybody knows Mean Joe, right? Well, not my mom. In front of everyone else waiting in line, my mom stood her ground against what she thought was a line crasher and told him, "Well, I'm Mean Darlene and you'll have to wait in line like everybody else." The place just erupted. My mom quickly found out who he was and he did get his reservations. She also said he was very nice and left her a big tip. Seems he had a sense of humor about it too.

Just thought I'd share those stories.
Scot

Letemburn · 08-13-2005

Very nice story. I actually got a laugh out of the mean joe green one

ravidubey · 08-13-2005

That Mean Darlene story was classic!

TruBlueCowboy · 08-13-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by ravidubey

That Mean Darlene story was classic!

Enjoyed it too.

Juke99 · 08-13-2005

Hey....good stuff....thank you very much for the distraction from all the heavy discussions.

MissionCoach · 08-13-2005

Great stories...I was fortunate enough to meet Coach Landry once myself...

With all the BS going on with todays players over money and such...it's good to hear some positive stuff about the old guard...

Cbz40 · 08-13-2005

and so did I......................love reading stuff like that.

burmafrd · 08-13-2005

The old guard were not spoiled by success the way they are now.
It was a lot tougher back then to make it to the pros, and stay there. There were many fewer teams, and the rosters were a lot smaller. The year the Boys won their first SB, 1971, the roster was only 40. 1959, there were only 12 teams and rosters I think were only like 32. Now there are 34 teams with 53 men each. 12 teams at 32 each is 384. 26 teams in 1971 at 40 each is 1040. 34 teams with 53 each is 1802.
And only the stars in the early 70's did not have to get a job off season. If you were a lineman who was not a starter, you made maybe $10,000 a year. Now while that was not bad wages for 1970, auto workers in Detroit made about twice that- and did not get pounded for 6 months of the year. Also, they realized just how great they had it compared to a lot of people, and just how much of an accomplishment it was to make a pro teams final roster.

LeonDixson · 08-13-2005

Thanks for sharing. I like reading stories like these.

ndanger · 08-13-2005

WE SHOULD TRADE FOR MEAN DARLENE !!!!!!

Scotman · 08-13-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by ndanger

WE SHOULD TRADE FOR MEAN DARLENE !!!!!!

Well, maybe she could play RT. She did stop mean Joe from getting through the line.

Can you picture my diminutive 60 year old mom playing RT? It would look just about like it did last year I guess.

ndanger · 08-13-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scotman

Well, maybe she could play RT. She did stop mean Joe from getting through the line.

Can you picture my diminutive 60 year old mom playing RT? It would look just about like it did last year I guess.

Hey she might have had a chance last year for sure.Great story ,thanks man.After reading some of this stuff on here it's nice to read stories from real(wrong word) sensible fans.I mean some of these guys really believe in thier minds they are real fans.Guess they are,just different from me.

Thanks

RCowboyFan · 08-13-2005

Nice story