It Was Then, It Is Now
It Was Then, It Is Now
Big Rooms, Lost Days
December 1, 2018
In The Shadow of Power and Pride
It was December 1991 and a young White House intern was in the Old Executive Office Building, which is the White House annex. His memory tells him the room he was in was called The Map Room and it was on the Fourth Floor.
But a quick Internet search says otherwise, as the Map Room is actually in the White House itself so the name of the room the intern sat in, alone, is, for now at least, not knowable.
Was it the Diplomatic Reception Room? Funny how reality confounds memory and certainty.
What is irrefutable is the intern sat in the room waiting for someone though he admits he doesn’t remember who or why. But out the window he could see the President’s dogs, Millie and Ranger, running about on the White House lawn.
Those cute little dogs at the White House.
The intern, sometimes, wore his White Sox jacket to the White House and it kept him warm during his chilly walks to the Old Exec after he’d gotten off the train from Alexandria. The intern’s uncle had given the Sox jacket to him as a college graduation present the previous May.
He still has it.
A few months prior to those brief moments of looking at the Presidential dogs the Chicago Bulls had visited the White House and the young intern was lucky enough to be in the Rose Garden when President George H.W. Bush honored the NBA champs. For a moment the young intern was just a few feet from the President who was saying hello to some young children.
Another time – was it September? October? November? December? He remembers it was sunny. The intern stood in the hallway as the President walked by.
Over the entire three months he never actually met the President.
There was a cabinet in the office where the intern worked that had boxes of M&M’s with the Presidential Seal on them. The intern would gobble up the M&M’s on the train.
Good times in a lucky, fascinating and wonderful place working for a man who loved his country and believed in kindness and civility.
All those years ago. The memories fade a bit, but the feelings don’t. --TK
Saturday, December 1, 2018