With all the Clinton hype out there I was reminded of the time I met the man. Yes, it's true. It's thanks to Ariane and it's a long story...it's coming I promise.
UPDATE (finally): So it was 2000 and Bill Clinton was the President. Ariane worked as the Development Director for a non-profit based in East Palo Alto named College Track (they help high students from under-served communities get into college through tutoring and many after-school programs). The founder of the organization and her husband are friends of the Clintons so a visit to College Track was arranged when the President was in town for digital divide work (think HP computers on a few desks in East Palo Alto with the logos blown up for the press shot). President Clinton's visit to College Track was to be an "off the record visit". That is to say it wouldn't be published on his official calendar and the press wouldn't know about it either.
I was recruited as a volunteer to get a group of the students to the office by 7 a.m. Now, how would you get a group of teenagers out of bed at 6 a.m. and get them to wear something other than pants around their knees and t-shirts down to their ankles? Easy...tell 'em they're gonna be extras in a Denzel Washington/ J.Lo movie.
Secret service? Check. Ten more secret service? Check. President two hours late? Check. East Palo Alto traffic to a grinding halt during late morning commute? Check. Finally we gotta tell the kids what's going on.
"Guys. We had to tell you a bit of a lie to get you here this morning. You all are very lucky. you are going to meet the President of the United States, Bill Cliton."
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One of the students finally mustered up the courage to ask what was, apparently, on the minds of all of them.
"So, we're, like, not gonna meet J.Lo?"
And so an hour or so later the President arrived with his Jay-Z sized posse in tow. His smile was blingin' and he worked a handshake to everybody assembled there introducing himself as he did (just in case we thought he was someone else I 'spose). He then spoke for about 20 minutes about the importance of technology to get into the hands of all young people so that some didn't grow up with no exposure to it.
A few flashes, some catered Italian food (courtesy of Francesco, Apple's chef) and the President was gone as quickly as he came. Six black on black Chevy Suburbans pulled away and it was quiet again.
Postscript: I never met Francesco that day, white shirt, kneeling soccer-pic stylee in the photo. It wasn't until this week that I noticed this really familiar guy at Apple. I had just looked at him again for the first time in a while after all as I scanned the photo. I approached him in the Apple cafeteria and introduced myself. He's the chef Steve Jobs called when he returned in 1997 ("Francesco, the food sucks here, you gotta come help"). The world gets smaller again.
Written while jammin' to Home (Intro) from the album Chilltown, New York by Eric Sermon Posted by Pedraum at July 23, 2004 11:48 PM | TrackBack |