This is a story of a Christmas past…
I’m not exactly sure what year this was, I’m thinking it was around 1985/86 and my family was living in Bethel Park, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was Christmas Eve and we were going to the evening mass at our church, which was minutes from the house. Gathered to go to church were my mom and dad, my brother Bill(9), sister Beth(4) and me (I was around 11 or 12 years old at the time). We packed ourselves into the light blue family station wagon, got to the church early to get a good parking space, and more importantly seats.

We settled into a row that was about halfway towards the back of the church, (this was important because we had planned on making an early escape so we could avoid the traffic at the end.) The church was packed, church service had begun and Christmas music was being sung by the choir. That is when we heard a little commotion coming from the back of the church. It started as whispers and then the crowds heads began to turn around, so I also turned to see what was going on. That is when I saw him, and as a child it was my first celebrity sighting ever. (At the time the show Family Ties was one of the biggest shows on the television. Everyone tuned in weekly to see what the Keaton family was up to with Michael J. Fox starring as Alex P.Keaton. On the show were the mother, father, Alex P., the blond sister and other sister Mallory. The show was rounded out by oddball supporting characters like Skippy and Mallory’s boyfriend Nick.) Walking down the aisle, just feet away from me, was a real live television star, in my church, in my hometown was Mallory’s boyfriend Nick (video clip). WOW!!! (Twenty-five years later you say to yourself, “who the fuck is Nick”, but at the time THIS WAS A BIG DEAL. On the show he was an aloof character, maybe a little slow, street guy with a small vocabulary and very awesome 80’s mullet haircut.) Nick along with his family were able to squeeze into one of the pews and tried to watch the service. Every eye in the place was watching his every move, as was I.

Having my attention fully focused on the worldwide television celebrity that was sitting just feet away from me, I had lost track of what was going on at the church. Before I knew it, it was time to rise up from our seats for Communion. (Communion was also the time when it was easiest to sneak out of church early and beat the traffic.) So my dad quickly rounded everybody up, pushing us up the aisle and out the back of the church. I didn’t want to leave at this time, I wanted to stick around and meet Nick after church, shake his hand/get an autograph but dad was having none of that and got us all into the car. Sorry, gotta beat the traffic.

After being packed back into the family station wagon, we were trying to get out of the parking lot as fast as possiblet. The parking lot was huge, dad was weaving around the lanes, towards the exit aisle, we could see that people were beginning to exit the church, we had to get out of that parking lot pronto. (I could see people gathering outside the doors of the church, I thought to myself “they’re waiting for Nick!”) As our car was passing next to the church, (the parking lot exit now just a hundred yards away) the doors of the church open now, I could see the crowd was excited, (almost out of the parking lot…no stop signs…about to get out of there.) Then out of the corner of my eye, I could see the blur of a man running…

SSSSSCCCCRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

My dad had slammed on the breaks so hard that all of us kids in the back seat flew out of our seats (kids seats weren’t required back then). What the hell just happened???

I rose up from the backseat of the car to look out and I could see through the windshield that on the front of the hood of our car was Nick from Family Ties.

HOLY SHIT!!!
WE JUST HIT NICK FROM FAMILY TIES WITH OUR CAR!!!
None of us could breathe, time had stopped, the was an international television star and his gigantic mullet on the front of our car.(1)(2)

Before I could register what had happened, as quick as he was on our hood, his head popped back up, he looked back at us in the car, smiled, waved, and then continued to run into the darkness.

Shocked and surprised my dad checked to see if we were OK, made us buckle up and then we headed home for Christmas.

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(1) He wasn’t sprawled across the hood. Dad was able to stop before hitting him, Nick braced himself for impact by putting his hands up on the hood.
(2) Apparently before his role on Family Ties “Nick” was hit by a truck and was injured for many years.