General Powell, General Clark, and SNL, 1998, by Matt Lindsey
From MemoryArchive
Who: M. Lindsey What: The Impressions of the Honorable Colin Powell When: May 1998 Where: Jackson Hole, WY
Like many students, my mailbox during my senior year was filled with invitations to send someone a nominal fee to get your name and photo in a "Who's Who in American [Insert Subject Here]". Whether it was my PSAT and SAT scores, or my participation in national competitive debate and public speaking competitions, or what I never knew. These mailings were invariably glanced at and then tossed in the trash.
One such invitation, from a group called the American Academy of Achievement, didn't make the trash, though. I opened it and set it aside, thinking it too was another in the long line of pointless organizations to which I could belong if I only sent in the $20 fee. It had a list of names I recognized on the letterhead, some real big names in fact. I nearly threw it away like the others, but upon a second reading I realized that instead of offering me money to be in a yearbook, I was being invited to an all-expenses paid week-long retreat in Wyoming. The mailing even had a card for me to put my tux measurements on it so that they could provide me with the formal attire for the culminating event.
So I filled the materials out and when May rolled around, made the pilgramage from my hometown in Kansas to Jackson Hole, WY. The summit consisted of several hundred high school students and a host of politicians, businessmen, scientists, writers, actors, musicians, and athletes. It really was head turning. The point was to have a lot of close interaction between and among the newsmakers and the students. Meals were joint affairs, as were all the various roundtable discussion and side trips. I have vivid memories of discussing the differences between rugby and hockey, in terms of violence, with four Nobel prize winners at breakfast. I had the honor to hang out and talk American military history with novelist Tom Clancy and the late historian Stephen Ambrose. Just telling the story makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, because it sounds like name-dropping. But it was overwhelming and exciting for an 18-year old.
Two moments in particular stand out. The first was the first day. The students arrived first, and most of the famous people didn't show up until that evening or the next day. So a few of my new friends and I were sitting in the lodge's common room getting to know each other. Another young man sat down next to the right of me on the sofa and joined the conversation. Somehow, the subject turned to music and this new guy, who told me his name was Sean, and I expressed interest in similar music - blues, some early R&B, and classic rock in particular. He and I must have talked for about twenty minutes about various artists before I managed to see his nametag (on his right lapel), which read Sean "Puffy" Combs. I had been just chatting it up with Puffy/Puff Daddy/P. Diddy/Diddy and it blew my mind. Of course, once I realized this, I figured out who the attractive woman across the room was - Jennifer Lopez. My head was spinning at that point.
The second story is this. Several days into the summit, I had the privelege to have dinner with Gen. Colin Powell (at the time a private citizen and retired Chairman of the JCS) and Gen. Wesley Clark (at the time, SAC of NATO). Another guest of the event was Antonia Novello, who had been U.S. Surgeon General when Powell was the JCS Chairman. Novello was the first woman or Hispanic (she was from Puerto Rico) to hold the position. She came over and chatted with us for a bit. Powell leaned over to me and mentioned that Novello's brother was the comedian Don Novello. The name may not ring a bell for a lot of people, but his stage persona surely does - Father Guido Sarducci of Saturday Night Live fame. Anyway, the conversation turned and Powell and Clark began doing impressions of old SNL skits. It was a riot and a dinner tht I will never forget. It's nearly impossible for me to see Powell or Clark on television and not hear them imitating Sarducci.
