My Gerald Ford Memory

On this National Day of Mourning for President Gerald Ford, it seems like a good time to share my personal memory of the 38th president.

In the spring of 1975. I was a seventh grader at Irvington Junior High School in Irvington, NY. Two busloads of Irvington students had just arrived at the old Shoreham hotel in Washington, DC to begin a three day field trip to the nation's capital. For most of us it was our first trip to Washington.

The first order of business was for our teachers, chaperones for the trip, to check us all in and get our room keys. We were excited to be away from home and perhaps a bit rambunctious. The teachers had us line up, single file, in the lobby and told us to sit on our suitcases and wait quietly.

A few moments later several men appeared and strung a long rope parallel to us. We just assumed it was part of some effort by the hotel to keep a rowdy group of kids under control. Transfixed by the men with the rope, we were startled when a loud, commanding voice bellowed "stand up!" Certain we must have done something wrong, we complied with the order while exchanging guilty looks.

Suddenly, the doors in front of us swung open and the voice bellowed "The President of the United States" and sure enough, walking straight towards me, was President Ford. He walked right over to me with his hand outstrectched. Shocked, I somehow had the presence of mind to stick out my hand. He grabbed it and I got my first (and only) Presidential handshake.

Just as quickly, President Ford moved down the line, greeting many of my classmates and then disappeared from view.

At that point, we had been in Washington for all of about ten minutes and we had already met the President of the United States. Not bad. I vividly recall the pleasure of getting into my hotel room, calling home to let my parents know I had arrived safely and casually saying "oh, and we met the President". I am pretty sure my parents didn't believe me until we returned to New York three days later and the teachers assured them we really had met the President.

Thanks for the memory, Jerry.