Secret Service Escort.....
I knit a tiny bit, here and there, during the Inaugural coverage the other day. I am one for traditions and such. I love when the Pope smoke rises from the stack, I watched all of Ronald Reagan's SuperFuneral coverage, and I wouldn't miss a moment of Princess Diana's wedding.
So while I was watching this week, I thought I would tell you about the time I had a Secret Service escort.
I was "out to here" pregnant with Allison and my neighbor invited me to hear Ronald Reagan speak to employees at the nearby Sara Lee Factory. I've never seen a President up close, so I thought it would be historic in my small little life. Well, we waited and waited and waited and waited and waited some more, and he was late.
Now I had to get to work by 3 and I started to realize I was going to be late myself. I don't do late to work: ever. I started to get crabby because of the wait. Started thinking, you know we all have jobs Mr President and if I can be on time, you can too. I'm funny like that. I have this sense that no one is really more important than anyone else. Silly me. I was pregnant though, and tired of standing, and getting hungry and 20 years younger.
So they announce he's on the way FINALLY, and I decide I have to leave. Well, the Secret Servcie did not want any movement in the hallways/building/ etc during this time. I Blah blah blahed to one of them about how I had to get to work, and my job needed me there and I may not be the President but I was a nurse (are you laughing at my inflated sense of self importance?)
SO, this really big man escorted me out to my car. As we got outside, the motorcade was pulling up. I didnt see Reagan. Not so much as a finger from a wave or anything. The Secrete Service man told me to stay right next to him. No remember I was "out to here" pregnant so in one way I'm sure I looked harmless. It was kind of creepy in a way to know that all these people I saw outside were Secret Service and probably armed.
I got to work on time. I can say I had a Secret Service Escort in my lifetime. I;ve never seen or met a President, though... have you?
I'll talk to you in the comments. :)
Comments
I used to be a travel agent. After my kids were born, I worked out an arrangement to work from home. Of course I felt special and privileged. One afternoon, there were just no calls, and I thought, cool. I can use a quiet afternoon. Until someone from the office finally called and said that Bill Clinton had come into the office! He was in town for some meeting and walked by the office and saw a MN POW-MIA sign one of the agents had hanging at her desk (her husband went MIA in Korea years ago). So he stopped and made an impromptu visit, did photo ops, chatted, shook hands.
With everyone but me.
Sigh.
My mom however had the opportunity once to see one of the Royal Family in person, as they asked my granddad the way. The princess asking then is our Queen now.. and she thanked my grandfather with a cigar.
We all went and what a disappointment. First it was brutally cold. Really brutal. Then, although we had tickets, that gets you through the gate onto the lawn and VERY far back. Really really far. We stood and waited forever, all shivering. An 90 year old, an 8 year old, a teenage boy and us. Finally it started, but of course we couldn't see anything because we were so far back - there were some microdots and 2 very big television screens. So we watched the inauguration on TV like we could have at home without the expense of the trip to DC, without the freezing temps, but we were there. We have some photos of Clinton and Dole shaking hands - oh wait, it was a couple of guys in Clinton and Dole rubber masks.
We then went over to the parade site and scored a really good spot. We waited hours, literally, in the freezing weather and then my daughter started crying that she hated this, and so we left without seeing anything. Oh well. Never again.
I watched the inaugural speech on the TV coverage in the UK and was really moved by it. To look down the avenue and see so many moved to spend hours in those freezing temperatures...
My own claim to fame is most shame worthy. As a kid, I was convinced I was going to become Mrs Donny Osmond (I know!!). Imagine my excitement when my work colleague raced into work to tell me, Donny was 50 yards down the street from the hospital where we work - in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. Despite the old arthritic joints, this middle aged groupie was down the road like a shot, giggling like a school girl....