Posted on 11/18/2004 6:17:54 PM PST by GulliverSwift
You have asked that I discuss some memories of President Clinton and my relationship with him. There are several that immediately come to mind. First, I remember being on the last Arkansas Traveler trip of the 1992 election. We had gone to the state of Kansas and returned to Little Rock on the night before the 1992 election. My wife, Susan Turner Purvis, also a Hope native, picked me up as we arrived back into town and told me I absolutely had to see this scene in downtown Little Rock.
I remember driving into downtown Little Rock at night and finding six or seven square blocks cordoned off. The entire area within those blocks was lit up as bright as day. I also remember some two hundred odd satellite trucks parked within that several block area, ready to transmit the next night's events to the entire world via television.
I remember the incredible excitement and anticipation the next day as I realized my lifelong friend had an excellent chance of being elected President of the United States. I also recall what a strange and eerie feeling it was on election night when we heard on all of the major networks that they had declared my lifelong friend, Bill Clinton, to be the next President of the United States. It was eerie, numb, and exhilarating all at the same time.
Another vivid memory I have is of the first visit to the Oval Office. In April of 1993, I was in Washington for a legal seminar. I was joined by my wife, Susan, and our children, Elizabeth and Benjamin. We were also accompanied with an Italian foreign exchange student living with us that year, Margherita Martini. No one ever forgot her name. I had telephoned the White House a couple of days before to let them know that we would be in Washington and to ask if we could get a tour of the White House. We were told to report for a 7:30 a.m. tour at the East Gate of the White House.
As our group gathered in the East Wing of the White House prior to the start of the tour, the tour guide asked "Who are the Purvises?" When we identified ourselves, we were told that after the tour, we were to come back to that particular room. No explanation was given as to why we should come back.
After the tour was over, the five of us returned to the room where we were met by Robyn Dickey, Social Coordinator for the White House and a native of Little Rock, whom we had known long before. Robyn quickly slipped tags around all of our necks and explained that the President would very much like to see us but would only have a couple of minutes. I remember Susan and I looking at each other, our eyes wide with anticipation. I remember being led very quickly down the halls of the White House, past incoming and ongoing tour groups, behind the partition that cordons off the West Wing of the White House from those who are on the tours. We were then led to the office of Nancy Hernrich, Secretary to the President, just outside the Oval Office. We were, of course, quiet but were like kids on Christmas morning.
The Oval Office of the White House is something that, to my knowledge, no one from Hope, Arkansas, had ever seen in person before. I know that it was something that I never dreamed that I would get to see in person. It was something you only saw on the newsreels and on the television evening news, and occasionally when the President of the United States would speak to the American people. There might also be a picture of it in the World Book, but apart from that, it was absolutely hallowed ground.
We were led quickly into the White House where President Clinton was meeting with Chief of Staff, and my classmate, Mack McLarty. Our two minute visit turned into five to seven minutes with everyone hugging each other and catching up on old times. I remember both Susan and I looked around, trying to soak in as much of the contents of the room as quickly as we could because we just knew this would be the only time in our lives we would ever be there. I also remember the hugs the President gave our children and how warm and genuine those hugs were. I think it epitomizes the love that President Clinton has for all of us.
As we were ducking out of the room, the President grabbed my arm. He noticed that I was wearing a french cuff shirt with a pair of funky cuff links. After telling me how much he enjoyed my cuff links, he pressed a small blue box into my hand and said, "Here, try these."
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"After telling me how much he enjoyed my cuff links"
Wasn't that his pickup line with Monica?
Blah. I read, I understood, and I apoloigize for reading this article. Beyond barf..it is a retch.
LOL, honest picture!
That quarter is HILARIOUS!!!
Whoever posted all those keywords... do have them all typed up in advance?
That coin can be used in peep shows from coast to coast.
Did Chris Matthews write this stuff?
LOL... a freeper search for the keyword "Oral" is quite telling...
Notice that no one is talking about what wonders that Bubba's endorsement did for Kerry's campaign.
The only time he got his hand OFF it was when Monica was ready to put her mouth ON it.
BTW, whatever happened to Paula Jones?
I found the 'exciting times for Arkansas' headline quite ironic since I was born and raised down there. I moved to St. Louis in 1990 and thought I'd finally gotten away from the Clintoons at that point. But it was not to be.
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When he was in his second term in the W.H. lots of folks were getting really tired of their act, to which I would respond, "How about us poor b******ds who've had to put up with them since 1978...
There used to be a "Arkansas: Home of Bill Clinton" on the LA/AR border that was full of bulletholes. Not just one or two, but five or six. We always crossed into Arkansas laughing because of it.
I suppose to someone who had a "lifelong" friend (as this man said often) become president and you were invited into the Oval Office, it would be exciting and something you would treasure forever.
Oh yeah, exciting like a root canal.
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