The "I've Seen Three Presidents. True Story", editions.

iPad shuffled to N.W.A., "Express Yourself".  Young Dre.  This entry doesn't have much to do with dialysis adventures, but I'm going to try to find a tie in.   President Obama's visit to University of Michigan reminded me of how I've seen 3 (and a half) presidents.  The first encounter was at Uiversity of Michigan. So how I the world did I get close to 3 Presidents of the United States?  Pure luck. Lol. The first was Gerald Ford, when I attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  I can't remember the dates, but I remember where I was and certain events around the encounters.  Gerald Ford spent a considerable amount of time in Ann Arbor.  He was a graduate of the university. I'm thinking maybe late 1976 or 1977?

Eric Benet and Faith Evans, "Georgy Porgy". Nice duet. My roommate and had an apartment directly across the street from Michigan Stadium, on Main Street. It's a good distance from campus, but UM had a massive bus system. The bus stop was about 1.5 blocks from our apartment. You see, since we were so close to the stadium, we were close to the uiversity's sports complex. The buses stopped there. So my roommate and I headed to the bus stop. The bus ran every 20 minutes. Always. Never ever late.   Except this time. We notice more people at the bus stop.  As we're wondering why the bus is late.  We notice a lot of Ann Arbor police cars heading west on the street north of the bus stop. A LOT of cars. Us students, not being fazed by much thought it was odd.  Then a lot of Washtenaw County motorcycles went up the same street. A LOT of motorcycles. We're thinking it's strange, but nothing has connected. 

Then, on the street we're on, here come a lot of Michigan State Police cars. A LOT. Yes, we're still clueless. Lol. About 30 totally clueless UM students...waiting for the bus, dammit.  Lol.  After the 10 or so MSP cars, we see a black sedan with heavily tinted windows followed by 2 black sedans with 3 of the 4 doors open and men hanging out of the doors.  (Yes, it was unusual, but we're still clueless. Lol ). Then here comes a black limousine, window down and Gerald Ford is waving at us!!!!!!  We never expected that!!!   Lol. My roommate saluted. Roflmao. In her defense, she was ROTC in high school. Most of us waved back.  Didn't see that one coming!! Anyway, after the limo, 2 more black sedans with men hanging out  of them, and one more sedan.  And the bus. 30 minutes late. Lol.   Lots of hubbub after that.  Even though most people waiting for the bus were wildly liberal, we were impressed that we were that close to a president.   That clearly made our day. :-)   And we didn't bitch because the bus was late. :-D

Ramsay Lewis, "Love Song". The piano is the star.  The campus was treated to Gerald Ford several times that year.  I remember being in the "fish bowl" waiting for a class and we were overrun by secret service.  The secret service guys tried desperately to fit in, but they were so obvious. Lol. They were big burly white guys wearing flannel shirts and I'll fitting jeans.  The students usually looked a lot more scruffier, longer hair,  and tended toward the skinny side, rather than looking like body builders.  Lol. We let them think we didn't know who they were.  We knew President Ford was somewhere nearby. 

Graham Central Station, "The Jam".  After all these years, this song makes you want to dance.  Larry Graham is playing the hell out of his bass.  "Suga'".  The last encounter of Gerald Ford was in one of my classes.  It was a Black History lecture class.  No, he didn't talk about Black history. I think it was a campaign speech. Lol.  The pledgee sitting next to me fell asleep. I'd nudge her every time the cameras came our way. 

The other presidents I've seen are Bill Clinton...during the election. I was going to lunch in downtown Detroit, and he and his entourage were going through the building the same time as I. And yeah, his secret service at that time was nowhere near Ford's. I saw Barack Obama at a Detroit Economic Club luncheon before he had official declared his candicy. 

 The 1/2 president was George W Bush.  I'd picked up Shawn from Herlong Elementary school.  We got on the freeway.  As soon as we got on the overpass, the Michigam State Police in front of us stopped us.  Then behind us, the Michigan State police diverted all traffic behind off the freeway. Lol. There are about 20 of us cars stuck on the Lodge Freeway on the northbound bridge over the I-94 the Edsel Ford Freeway).  Lol. We had to wait for the George W. Bush motorcade coming from Selfridge Air National Guard base heading to Lansing.  Yes, of course we got out of cars to see it.  Lol. The delay was no longer than 10 minutes.  The cool thing was, when the road opened up, we had the freeway to ourselves. And we could see how MSP did the traffic thing without too much disruption to traffic flow.  

Yeah, I have no dialysis tie in. How's this. April is National Organ Donation month. Signing off with "All Day Music", War. Reminds me of summer. :-)   Enjoy your day!!