A MOMENT TO REMEMBER

  A Cop meets a lotta folks. Most are just regular people, but a few are different. Some infamous. And a few famous. Someone sent me one of Ron Reagan's jokes today. It caused me to reflect on a very special day when I got to be one of his body guards.

 He was running for President and making  a whirlwind tour of Florida. The Secret Service advance men had visited a few days before, checking the lay of the land and making preparations for the visit. I had worked with these heroes--yes they are American heroes--many times before but this time it was special. Mr Reagan was a person I admired. Most politicians I disdained, so he was in a select group to me.

 I believe the advance agent saw that and asked if I'd like to be on Mr Reagan's closeup security team for the visit. I jumped at the chance. He gave me a small, circular badge that clipped on my pocket. It designated that I was allowed to be close enough to Reagan to touch him.

 That day, the helicopter landed in Cambier Park, and suddenly there he was, just like in the movies but larger than I expected, more vibrant. He strode swiftly to the outside podium and commenced his remarks. At the side, I talked with an agent, whose eyes constantly scanned the crowd.

  "He gives that speech very convincingly," I said.

 "He should," said the agent, "he gives it every day. Ten times today already, and we have three stops to go."

  "Seems like a regular guy," I said.

 "He's a champ, except he has to get up close and press the flesh. We asked him to stand back a few feet from that," he pointed to a rope strung to hold back the crowd, "but he won't. He'll be right up against it where any psycho could stick a knife in him. But, no need to argue, that's the way he is."
  And indeed, after the address that's what he did, shaking everyone's hand like they were long lost friends. I guess for many of us, having grown up seeing him on the Screen and TV, that was so.
  Howsumever, it was a day I'll never forget. And for a week or so after folks asked about my adventure, guarding Mr Reagan. Trouble was, of all the things I might have been able to comment on, they only asked one thing: "Do you think he dyes his hair?"
 Such is politics in American. How have we lasted so long?