Unlikely Gifts with Diane M. Simard
Unlikely Gifts with Diane M. Simard
EP 3 Did That Really Happen?
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Take a trip back in time with host Diane M. Simard and her producer/editor, Larry King, as they reminisce about significant moments in history that Diane actually witnessed. They cover Prince Charles and Lady Diana's wedding in 1981, Nadia Comaneci and the 1976 Montreal summer Olympics, and finish with what was undoubtedly one of sports' greatest moments.
Personal website: https://www.dianemsimard.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DianeMSimard1965
LinkedIn (Personal): https://www.linkedin.com/in/diane-moravec-simard/
LinkedIn (Unlikely Gift Productions): https://www.linkedin.com/company/81847025/admin/
Diane's book: https://www.dianemsimard.com/book/
Larry's Sorta Fun Stories podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/larrys-sorta-fun-stories/id1612127522
Hi, everyone, and welcome to episode five of the Unlikely Gifts podcast. I'm your host, Diane M. Samard, and I'm here with everyone's friend, Larry King.
SPEAKER_02You know, getting together just once a month just isn't enough. We've got to know more about Diane.
Diane M. SimardOh, oh, well, here's something. Here's a question.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
Diane M. SimardAre you as much of a historical nut as I am?
SPEAKER_02Well, the some people have said I do have a good memory. I can remember so many things that have happened in my life. So I have a little bit of history. I I don't think deep, deep, deep, but I am a history buff. Yes, I do enjoy history.
Diane M. SimardFantastic. Well, I I love it too. I love it too. And today I thought we'd travel back a few decades to some historical events that left a lasting impression on me. I featured some of them in a blog post I wrote in the summer of 2019 that you can find and sign up for in the blog archive tab of my website, which is DianaMsimard.com.
SPEAKER_02And what's the name of this blog?
Diane M. SimardUh, the name of my blog is Middle Age Moxie.
SPEAKER_02That's a perfect description of Diane's writing style, which ranges from uh controversial to witty to emotional. Every time I read one of her blogs, I feel like you're actually talking to me.
Diane M. SimardOh, well, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_02And by the way, uh, wasn't 2019 the summer we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing?
Diane M. SimardIt it sure was, and that was in fact why I wrote that blog to recognize that we were celebrating the 50th anniversary. And even though I barely remember that day because I was only four years old, the moon landing was the historical moment that prompted me to write a blog about other significant moments in history that I actually witnessed.
SPEAKER_02I certainly remember that day because I actually went camping that day. That was the first time my wife and I we had bought a tent, we went out and camped on the woods, and and it rained. It was a grand time, and I slept on the ground. But I remember that day when the moon landing. So we came home and watched uh television to watch the the actual Walter Crankheite giving the giving the event. And of course, Kennedy being assassinated was an important thing in my life, and the death of Alvis, those kinds of things always stick out in my mind. The death of Alvis, you Alvis came through Lincoln, Nebraska on his final tour. If you you don't know that.
Diane M. SimardI did not know that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he hit Omaha, you know, Lincoln and Omaha, and then went to Memphis and the concerts, I think. But that was his last. And I it's one of those concerts I didn't go to.
Diane M. SimardOh my gosh. Well, well, as I was researching the events that we're gonna chat about today, yeah, I realized I re I realized what an unlikely gift those moments were because I was witnessing history in the making, right?
SPEAKER_02Those are the best. Let's dive in, shall we? Um, what's your first historical moment?
Diane M. SimardSo the first um historical moment is that uh ill-fated day when Charles, Prince of Wales, wed Lady Diana Spencer, and that was on July 29th, 1981, at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. And at the time it was billed as the quote-unquote wedding of the century, and everyone seemed to be consumed with the two of them. And and their love story, uh, if you could later call it that, reminded me of a fairy tale.
SPEAKER_02I do remember the anticipation of everybody. I wonder how many people actually tuned in to watch that day.
Diane M. SimardWell, some estimate that as many as 750 million spectators around the globe watched it live.
SPEAKER_02Oh my! I had no idea. I remember the early 1980s as a time when pop culture began to shift in a really big way.
Diane M. SimardWell, it it really did. And in fact, uh, you mentioned uh Walter Conkite. In 1981, he signed off as the main anchor of the CBS Evening News in March of that year. And then, and this is for the people that follow rock and roll, Van Halen's lead guitarist, bad boy, Eddie Van Halen, married one day at a time's good girl Valerie Bertinelli. That was quite controversial.
SPEAKER_02We did not see that coming.
Diane M. SimardNo, we didn't. And uh soap operas, of course, were very popular, and those included daytime soaps like General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, and The Young and the Restless. And of course, there were the evening soaps like Dynasty Falcon Crest in Dallas.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. Who shot J.R.
Diane M. SimardYeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02Okay, and at that time I was managing the roller skating rink in Lincoln, Nebraska. And we did a Who Shot JR night? Yes, sir, to celebrate that. So, yeah, a lot of lot of things happened there. Although I never watched any of the soap operas, and I never watched Dallas either.
Diane M. SimardSo even though 750 million people watched Charles and Diana's royal wedding, a stunning 30 million people also tuned in to watch Luke and Laura's wedding on General Hospital, and that was on November 17th of 1981. And by the way, it's still the highest-rated soap opera episode in American daytime television history.
SPEAKER_02Wow. What were we thinking?
Diane M. SimardYou know, I it's to me, it's like everyone wanted to escape reality or something.
SPEAKER_02What do you remember about the royal wedding?
Diane M. SimardOkay, so um, unfortunately, I miscalculated the time difference between Coatesfield, Nebraska, and London. And I didn't wake up early enough to watch the wedding procession. But I remember, I remember the first image that I saw when I turned on the TV set in our living room was of the backs of people seated in this high ceiling cathedral chapel, and then this white wedding dress train that seemed like it stretched most of the way down the aisle. And that 25-foot long train, it was obnoxious and over the top. And I'll remember was asking myself why. It was a spectacle, and you know what? The world just we just couldn't get enough, right?
SPEAKER_02Right. Did you watch The Crown on Netflix? Have you seen the crown?
Diane M. SimardYeah, yeah, we have it's in it's very, very good.
SPEAKER_02Didn't we learn the fact that the wedding was the format for the for the funeral of the mother of the queen? I mean, wasn't that amazing? Yeah, the staging that they go into to do all that.
Diane M. SimardYeah, absolutely. And and that truly was a a spectacle. But the um the protocol and things were just done a certain way, and that's that's kind of the point.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So so what's your next event that happened?
Diane M. SimardSo um, we're gonna go back a few years before 1981, and we're gonna go back to the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics. And and of course, that was the year of gymnast Nadia Komonichi.
SPEAKER_02Didn't she score a perfect 10 or something like that?
Diane M. SimardWell, yeah, she actually scored seven perfect tens, and she was the first gymnast ever to receive a perfect score. Wow. And she was actually from Romania, not the Soviet Union.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
Diane M. SimardBecause, of course, you know, the the Cold War, all of that was was brewing, certainly. And it was a big deal at the time that she was not from the Soviet Union. And of course, I was almost 11 back in 1976, and I I loved watching her because she had come out of nowhere and she was only three years older than me. She was four fourteen.
SPEAKER_02But she looks so pre so old, I think. You know, I mean, so 14-year-olds, I guess, are the transition time that make them look like that.
Diane M. SimardCorrect. And she she was very mature. You're right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, mature, that's the word.
Diane M. SimardYep, and I I remembered watching her her body, she was very bony and thin. Um, and it reminded me of a twig, actually. But despite looking despite looking frail, she had the strength of a power lifter and the spring of a catapult launcher. Her moves were fluid and effortless. And I honestly feared that she was gonna snap in half every time she whooped around the uneven bars.
SPEAKER_02Well, at that age, she was obnoxiously very flexible.
Diane M. SimardWell, she really was. Her 32nd perfect performance on the uneven bars was what earned her her first perfect 10. And get this when the judges' score came on, everyone was confused because the score on the scoreboard was 1.00 because it was not programmed to display a score higher than 9.99.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, because yeah, okay.
Diane M. SimardSo once the stadium announcer clarified that she had indeed scored a 10, the sports world began to hyperventilate, and I realized that I had just witnessed imperfection. And then she went on to score six more perfect tens.
SPEAKER_02Well, that I did not remember. Yeah, I just remember that she did a 10, and but wow.
Diane M. SimardSix more times. Yeah, it was it was quite the feat. Um, but it did the story doesn't stop there. So when ABC's Wide World of Sports did a montage of her routines from the Montreal Olympics, they used background music that was titled Cotton's Dream, which many knew as the theme from the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. And so the song was later re-released as Nadia's theme, and the song reader made a gazillion dollars. Wow.
SPEAKER_02I I love hearing that story. I had not known all that. So that's great.
Diane M. SimardYeah, but there's even more. So Ms. Komenici never she never performed her floor routine to the song during the Olympics, although everyone thought she did. She will forever be tied to the song, all because someone at ABC went searching for background music.
SPEAKER_02Well, I love doing that. I can totally understand getting that done. Because I love it. I love doing that.
Diane M. SimardThat that was that was part of your job through the years at the TV stations.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Creating those montages and the emotion, the feeling. Exactly. Well you got exactly do you have anything else that you remember?
Diane M. SimardWell, I've got I've got one more, and it's very special to me. Uh-huh. So on March 3rd, 1993, ESPN, the sports channel, they hosted their first ESPI awards for excellence in sports performance. And uh back then I didn't care much about sports, so I never watched ESPN. However, I was alone in my apartment that night in Richardson, Texas, and while channels surfing on TV, remember when we used to do that? Uh I I came across the awards show.
SPEAKER_02I I still do that. So um I I bet I know where this is going.
Diane M. SimardOkay, okay. So you you probably do. And and at the at the microphone at the awards show was Coach Jim Valvano, who I didn't know much about, but I knew he was a popular college men's basketball coach. Uh, and he that he was battling terminal cancer. So I I paused to listen because he didn't look like someone who had cancer.
SPEAKER_02No.
Diane M. SimardNo, he was on fire giving the speech of a lifetime. He was actually giving an acceptance speech as recipient of the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award. He made everyone, including me, laugh as he poked fun at other coaches and himself. Then he announced the V Foundation for Cancer Research, whose motto is don't give up, don't ever give up. And and I began to cry. And I I had never been so moved in my entire life.
SPEAKER_02Now, this is before you had cancer.
Diane M. SimardOh, yeah. Well, years and years before, and and and and so much that anytime I heard the word cancer, I I just had this stereotype of someone who was very ill and frail, and then and and he just looked like he was so emotional and and and passionate, he was so into it. He was absolutely giving it his all. And then Jimmy V's teleprompter started flashing that he only had 30 seconds left to speak. And he said, I've got tumors all over my body, and I'm worried about some guy in the back going 30 seconds. And then he closed his remarkable speech with this.
SPEAKER_01Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you all.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's one of history's greatest sports moments. Actually, it happened off the court.
Diane M. SimardWell, without a doubt, Jim Volvano was in so much pain that he was barely able to stand as he climbed the stairs to the podium. But he came alive and he delivered perhaps the most passionate, heartfelt speech of all time.
SPEAKER_02And they had to basically carry him off when he was finished with the speech.
Diane M. SimardCompletely, completely exhausted. And then, of course, he died less than two months later. But his legacy, and he had a very, very successful legacy as a basketball coach. But the way that he gave that speech that night, it it's gonna live an infamy. It deserves to.
SPEAKER_02I don't know about you, but it still gives me chills to hear.
Diane M. SimardYeah, it it does me too. And all these historical moments are still raw and real to me today, too. And whenever I have a lousy day or I need a psychological boost, I always listen to Jimmy B's speech, which puts everything in perspective. And honestly, his speech is by far one of my most favorite unlikely gifts.
SPEAKER_02Pardon the pun, but I think we knocked that one out of the park.
Diane M. SimardI have to agree with you, and and thank you so much. And and thank you also, as always, for sharing your production and editing capabilities to make the Unlikely Gifts podcast possible.
SPEAKER_02That's my pleasure. Thank you very much.
Diane M. SimardAnd listeners, please write down any thoughts or additional memories you might have about any of these events in the comment section of our podcast page, and be sure to share our link with your friends. Of course, if you'd like to connect on social media, you can find me at Diane M. Samard on Facebook or LinkedIn, or send me an email through the contact tab on my website, which is DianeMSumard.com. As always, please remember, your special memories are, in essence, your unlikely gifts. And we are delighted to share ours with you. I'm Diane M. Samard, and this is the Unlikely Gifts Podcast!
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