Posted on 06/08/2004 5:53:09 AM PDT by Ron C.
Edited on 07/14/2009 11:50:39 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Blame it all on Dales ECB website (I ran across it in a google search) - and the going home of our nation’s greatest President, who always remembered my name every time we met at a GOP gig.
It has been a long time since I’ve posted here (roughly 2 ½ years) - I left to face a lot of trouble (legal, personal) and try to reorder life nearer the sane-level (still not quite there yet, as you’ll soon see...) - and knowing that I couldn’t do what needed done unless I quit spending so much time having a ball on FR for hours every day.
Sunday I decided my duty to go say goodbye in person was not negotiable - and apparently about 250 thousand others decided they were as bound - and decided to bring their neighbors with them.
I have a very bad back that attempts to kill me every time I stand or walk for more than about 20 minutes - I usually throw a few pills at it and it grudgingly subsides for a little while.. so I thought, hey - I can manage three hours, all I have to do is sit down once in a while. But... the line, to get on the bus was at least one and a half miles long. Got there at 6:11PM on the dot - and was about two thirds of the way along 5 hours later - and I heard from those returning - it was a three hour gig once on the bus. I began to think I wouldn’t make it.
Well - I had read that Bob J would have a Freeper-motor-home on the lot, and hoped to find it, drop in, say Hi, and mooch a free drink and a cookie or two - which I promptly did once I found it.
Thus began one wildly funny night... mostly at my expense. It wasn’t funny at first - and finally standing beside President Ronald Reagan’s casket, it was all I could do to keep from bawling like a child. The emotions ran deep, and all I could think of was how blessed I was - the world was - that we had this great man as our National Guiding Light. And - there’s more to say - before I get to the funny stuff...
No one expected the turnout - it was wildly underestimated. We were lucky. It was only three miles before the exit that we ran into a brick-wall of stopped cars (and I dove quickly to the last available exit before we hit it - and went in the little-known back way in rapid fashion.) At that time it was a three hour wait on the freeway to get to the bus parking lot - before you got in that mile-plus long waiting line for the bus. When I left Simi Valley, the freeway was backed up more than twice the distance, the later it got, the more people came. At the Reagan Library there were at least seven TV vans there just to serve the Asian continent with video from the site (all pointed at the 180 degree Intelsat bird.) More media was there than anyone had expected - including the media that I work with in satellite telcom. Even the liberals among them were standing in awe of the staggering numbers around them.
But - we escaped the daunting 4 to 5 more hours we would have faced to get to the Library - we got some sudden unexpected top-notch VIP treatment (another funny, more on later) that whisked us (who, in a minute) right up to the Library with parking right outside the door. But, not before we had to face an unexpected thorough search of my car - by FBI agents, and a dog sniffing for explosives. Hehe... (sick nervous giggle) there was only one problem - that I realized far too late. Thank God I remembered it, otherwise things could have gotten a lot out of hand in very little time. Just as I was pulling up I remembered - my loaded gun under the seat. I had no choice, and I wasn’t about to back out and head back down the hill - I leaned out the window and told the officer I had it, and asked him what he wanted to do about it. Five other people in the car either groaned audibly, gasped or uttered various adjectives and invectives under their breath. For a few reasons, I wasn’t really worried about it... though everyone else thought I was headed straight for jail. In less than three minutes I was told they would unload and hold the gun for me, that I wasn’t going to be cited (for a misdemeanor) but that they would have to check out the car - which they did - very thoroughly. I praised them for their work.
On pulling away from the checkpoint, Bob J and Diotima, along with my wife Mary and my friends Carol and Alf - all - I think, were ready to lynch me on the spot! Hehe.. but, they didn’t have a chance - we were directed through two more checkpoints right up to vacant VIP parking right outside the side door of the Library, and told to wait for the arrival of a special attendant to escort us past the crowd. Now, about how that happened. My wife, the ever gregarious lady she is, spotted a guy in a suit with a tag hanging around his neck - walking along past and amidst the hordes waiting thru the interminable lines for busses. She thought - hey, he might be one of those who was assigned the job of moving people - she acted on a hunch, and approached him, handing him her business card that shows she is an elected ‘member of the LA County Central Committee.’
It is amazing what that line can do at times... the gentleman informed my wife that she did not have to wait in line - and that he could get her (and others with her) parking right at the Library. He promptly called security at the Library, gave her name to the horde of security folks 6 miles away and told us to head up there in our car - they would be waiting for us. What the poor man thought was that three of us were ‘elected members’ of government - like members of the Assembly, or Senate. Well, two of us were elected, I’m appointed - all real dues paying members of the GOP, and it was always Ronnie’s .. er, President Reagan’s habit to treat us ‘low life’ members of the Party as if we had just as much right to the perks as those who wrote laws to take our money away from us. In fact, on at least two occasions that I was present, while he was Governor of CA he ‘escaped’ from the big-wigs to spend a little time telling us how thankful he was for our work.
So, our escort came, one of Ronald Reagan’s staff while he was in the White House, and took us directly across the patio, bypassing the line, to the door where our Greatest President lay in repose. All six of us were suddenly taken by the gravity of where we were - our ‘VIP status’ was forgotten, I felt almost weak kneed, and tears came quickly. The fact that I could tell the guy running the camera across the way was homed in on my face didn’t help matters a bit - and he follow me almost the whole way around. At that point the line was moving faster - and I was both glad, and disappointed that I could not linger.
Bob and Dio were going to take the bus ride back to the motor home - and we headed for Jerry’s Deli for a late dinner. Bob lamented about the ‘the tale that couldn’t be told’ (and the laughs they had over my stupidity, that could not be shared with other Freepers) - well, Bob - Dio, I’ve told the tale - so don’t hold back. Hehe.. It was a historic day, a wild ride, a heart stopping, heart rending, emotional roller coaster that my wife and friends laughed like crazy about - all the way to the restaurant, and all the way home. Freepers - I just wish you could hear Alf... he really is funny - and merciless! We were able to stand once again for a few brief moments beside one of the greatest men this nation has seen, to cry, and to laugh at ourselves - as ‘Dutch’ so often taught us to do.
And yes, I’ll try to stop by more than once every couple of years.
Much love to all.
The number of people out there is simply astounding.
dang... sorry about all the typo's - but, you'll know what I meant.
Good to see you again, my FRiend...MUD
LOL at your story. Thanks so much for sharing it. The media won't be able to hide events in DC quite as well as they can hide events in Simi Valley.
bump!
I would have loved to have seen everyone's face when you told the security gaurd "Oh By the Way, I have a loaded gun under the seat of my car."
Nice to see you too, MUD..
Cboldt, it was so sad in so many ways. But, it was glorious, it was thrilling, it was insane, it was so much fun, it was unforgetable. So very many people, so well behaved, so incredibly patient - so impressive in number, in friendship, in raw Americanism.
Actually, the media can no longer hide the events in Simi either. It was just announced that the viewing hours are being extended to the last possible moment to accomodate the enormous crowds that are exceeding even the largest estimates of the planners.
Hey guy. Stop in and say hello (after you check your freepmail)
SHEEESH...I had decided to forego road-tripping to the Capital to see him on Thursday, but now I'm having second thoughts...thanks fer the report, but now I'm in a quandary.
FReegards...MUD
Hehe... you didn't have to - the jaws hitting the floorboards were loud enough!
One thing I learned long ago in working often with law enforcement - they love the truth, and reward it.
Normally that gun is on hand at night in trecherous mountains near where I work, that has seen multiple murders nearby. I've just not finished getting the permit yet, and should have had it properly stored.
Thank you so much for your testimony.Yesterday I was a pallbearer for my friend's mother, and as little as I knew her I identified with my friend (and have been seeing my own mother's health failing) and was pretty much a wreck.
And that, for people who wouldn't have voted for Reagan on a bet.
I can only imagine what it'd be like to file past the bier of Ronaldus Maximus. You'd probably have to scrape me off the floor.In his two terms Reagan got the country going again, whipped inflation, ended the energy crisis, and transcended Communism.
But he also ended the "Fairness" Doctrine which had prevented the advent of conservative talk radio by imposing liberals' idea of fairness on broadcasting. Liberals' idea of fairness is and was, of course,
"Heads we win, Tails you lose."
Pinging Sortabichy for a report.
Great story. I can imagine that the numbers in DC will be staggering.
Dog, they can't hide it. On FNC last night they had a split screen all thru H&C. Many lovely young women in tears that the camera lingered on; an Indian man (I assume), bowing and giving Namaste; and, as I recounted on another thread: an older man w/a white beard and long white hair who was very muscular and seemed to me to look like a biker. He gave the casket a long salute, standing at attention, then crossed himself and then blew Reagan a kiss. It was wonderful.
8^)
Welcome back friend.
Howdy Ron, Great to see you. Thanks for the great post!
Jim
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