I lived in Arkansas for a little while in the mid-'80s when Bill Clinton was governor but didn't pay any attention to him--never suspected he would later be President. I thought Dale Bumpers might run.
I remember that the cartoonist for The Arkansas Gazette would draw Bill Clinton as a kid on a tricycle.
First I ever heard of Bill Clinton was in 1981, when I was eating at a diner outside Little Rock on my way to visit family. Some guys in the next booth had a verbal exchange with each other.
"Did you hear Bill Clinton wants to run for president?"
"No. Are you kidding me? How can he do that with his 'woman problem'?
"Well, that's what I hear."
I didn't know who this Clinton fellow was but by 1992, when he made his move, I began to know who he was.