ladies and gentlemen, all rise

I once shook hands with a real United States President

     It was Gerald Ford and it was March 12, 1976.
     How do I know?
     I Googled myself.
     Yes, vain that I am, I Googled my name.
     I found out what church I go to, that I am active in a theater group and improv comedy group, I do a blog,  and that I helped John clean up his house after a tornado.  Ok, it is actually Emily's at this point, but the press is never wrong.  I had a couple of articles in the Tribune Travel section.
     Oh,  I am also mentioned in the Gerald Ford Presidential Library in Michigan.  I think it is Grand Rapids.
     The paperwork deals with an Illinois Press Association event he attended in Chicago.  I worked for the newspaper at the time.  I am listed in Appendix I, on the top of the second page.  Terry Dickow, Rochelle News Leader.
     There must have been 100 of us in the room.  He came in and walked right past me, shaking hands.
     I said, "Nice to meet you Mr. President" or something innocuous like that.  I like to think I did not say, "Watch out, don't trip" or "Who voted you President?"  But, you never know.   The IPA took my picture and eventually I got two prints of me and the President.
     I was wearing my best corduroy sport coat, one with brown velvet elbow patches.  Despite my hoarding tendencies, that is long gone.
     So is the hair and moustache.
     I gave one of the pictures to my mother and you would have thought her head would burst it swelled up so big.  My dad was still alive, and in early stages of dementia, so I don't really remember how he reacted.  I like to think he was proud, but I honestly don't remember.  I imagine the picture is in a box of my mom's stuff in our basement.
     I looked through the list of names at the event.  I knew about 17 other people.  Ray, Jeff, Kathy, Mary, Bill, and a couple of others I was in school with.  There were several Rochelle paper people there also, along with former professors and their wives.
     Their names leaped out at me from the pages.  Funny, I don't remember them at the event.
     I  also don't remember why I didn't stay in touch with them.....we spent two years in journalism school together, and many, many hours at the Shamrock Pub in DeKalb.  We had seminars on Friday nights and they were always well attended, often by one or two staff members.
     In 1976 we were only four or five years removed from that friendship and camaraderie.
     I guess we all got busy with life.   Sad to say, I know of the 17, several of them are dead, including a couple younger than me.
     That's my brush with fame.
     I like to imagine Gerald Ford going home and saying to Betty, "I met a really swell fellow today.  He had the neatest sport coat and the greatest moustache I have ever seen.  I need to have him over for coffee."
     But, he blew his chance.