In Blog, General

As the editor, way back when, of ARCHERY WORLD magazine (now BOWHUNTING WORLD), I was fortunate to have press credentials for the archery part of the 1972 Olympics in Munich and the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

A few things stick in my mind.  This is one of them.

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With a press pass, you could go through the gate of a fence separating the archers from the bleachers at the Englischer Garten archery site.  This allowed you to get about 10 feet closer to the archers but still be behind them.  This was good for photo opportunities and interviews. No closer approach was permitted.

I went to a gate at the right corner of the bleachers and showed my press pass to the gate guard.  He shook his head no and waved a hand back and forth for emphasis.

With my left hand, I held my press pass as close as I could get to his nose (easy to do since he was a runty little fellow looking barely old enough to shave) and pointed to my pass with my right hand.

Another shake of the head and wave of the hand, both with more vigor than the first time.

Enough of this, I thought.  I circled back around the bleachers to the gate at the left corner and showed my pass to the guard there.

He opened the gate and waved me in.

“Thank you,” I said.  Maybe even “Danke schoen”.

The guard nodded and smiled.

I walked over to the runty first guard, stopped 10 feet from him and took half a dozen pictures of him while he pretended I didn’t exist.  He had to remain at his position and couldn’t move away.

I enjoyed that.  A lot.

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