I like to think I’m the kind of person who doesn’t have to drop names to prove my importance.

But I think I will anyway.

Over the years, I’ve interviewed Tony Stewart, Fuzzy Zoeller, Evan Bayh, Mitch Daniels, Frank O’Bannon, Arie Luyendyk, Al Unser Jr. and a host of other well-known individuals. I’ve had the opportunity to cover events featuring former Vice President Dan Quayle as well as his wife, Marilyn, former President Bill Clinton and presidential candidate Barrack Obama. I also had the chance to say “howdy” to Gomer Pyle one time after an Indianapolis 500.

My favorite encounter with a famous person, however, occurred long before I became a journalist.

At the time, this person wasn’t famous himself. In fact, he was a little boy of maybe four or five years of age. I was just a 16-year-old teenager trying to make a buck so I could keep paying the then unheard price of 69 cents for a gallon of gasoline.

My work as an usher at Bush Stadium in Indianapolis led to my meeting the child of one of the future members of the Big Red Machine. There were many players from a squad that would win the World Series in 1975 and 1976 playing for the Indianapolis Indians in 1973.

I knew many of their wives by sight, and some of their children as well.

One of those children just happened to be Ken Griffey Jr. Like most boys of that age, Junior loved to throw or roll a ball down the ramp to the area where he sat with his mom and other player’s wives and children.

He wouldn’t remember much about me from his days hanging out at Bush Stadium.

At the time, I wasn’t aware of how far this little boy would go in the world of baseball.

It was great to see him recently hit his 600th homer and join an elite crowd of just five other players in the game’s history. I’m happy that Griffey’s name will go down in history with the likes of Ruth, Aaron, Bonds, Mays and Sosa.

In my book, Griffey’s already got a leg up on at least three of the people on that list because he seems to have been able to stay out of trouble. He also is a far better role model than some of the other members of that club.

Junior might not be the greatest player to ever play the game. But he’s in my top 10.

As the dog and I headed into downtown Ewing, Brownstown Police Officer John Long stopped me and said it looked like I had a long day ahead of me.

I asked him why and he said he had just heard a report on his scanner that they were evacuating Little York because of flooding.

I said something to the effect of “great” and walked on, but a few minutes later, Long caught up with me again and said he had told me wrong.

They weren’t evacuating Little York, they were evacuating Little Acres.

I still haven’t decided whether I need to thank John or not for making my day.

His information however, changed things dramatically for me because Little Acres is in Jackson County whereas Little York is in Washington County.

The dog and I quickly finished our walk and I woke my wife to tell her I was leaving.

I also tried to wake my 15-year-old son to see if he wanted to tag along, but that was a futile effort.

By the time I made it to Little Acres off Indiana 11 north of Seymour, most of the evacuation was completed although flood waters completed covered Indiana 11 just east of the Interstate. I did have the opportunity to take some photographs of a frightened deer caught in a fence along the road. The poor thing was able to free itself after a few minutes. I hoped it survived.

That’s a sight I’ve not seen in my 22 years living in Jackson County.My day, however, was finished. After speaking with my wife and my editor, I learned that evacuations were in progress in areas on the northwest side of Seymour.

I headed that way and spent most of the rest of Sunday morning and afternoon taking pictures of and talking to people leaving their homes because of rising flood waters from the East Fork of the White River.

About 4 p.m., I headed home to take a break, but later in the evening, my wife, son and I headed to Medora to check out the situation in that small southwestern Jackson County town.

The scene there was amazing. The first thing we spotted other than the normal roadblocks were a large group of people of all ages filling sandbags.A walk down Perry Street revealed that flood waters were beginning to creep into the business portion of the town. The population of the town also looked like it was more than doubled.

There was almost a festive atmosphere as children and adults rode their bicycles around viewing the rising flood waters. 

At one point, I even saw a couple of kids playing in flood waters along a sidewalk on Perry Street.The things I will remember about the June 8, 2008, flood, however, is the how everyone pitched in and helped out their friends in neighbors.

In Seymour, I saw many people helping others remove furniture, televisions and other items from homes that looked to be in the path of flooding. 

I saw similar actions by others in Medora, and interestingly enough many of those involved in the sandbagging efforts in that town there were teenagers, who spent hours working to help others. No surprise there becuase as the parent of a teenage, I know what they are capable of doing if they feel the need.

I don’t know how many times throughout the day that I heard people telling others to let them know if they needed help.

It seems people are always voicing those words although the sincerity often doesn’t accompanied them. The sincerity was there Sunday.

I don’t think the people of Jackson County are any different than those anywhere else or any better when it comes to helping out their family, friends and neighbors.

But it sure is nice to see people pull together in time of needs instead of arguing over issues that really don’t amount to a hill of beans.