By Request: Secret Service Man

 

Run In Number One:

I was in college and between classes with a couple hours to spare. Per my habit, I decided to walk down to the Memorial Union building which houses a campus food service area with large areas full of tables where I could get something to drink while hitting the books until my next class. As I got close, I saw a guy a few feet in front of me standing and looking right at me as I approached. Thinking nothing of it and assuming he was looking beyond me, I swerved a bit to my right only to have him swerve and step right in front of me. My attention caught, I looked up with a WTH look in my face. That is when he asked me what my business was in the Memorial Union today. I told him I was going to get something to drink and do some studying. He said no I wasn't and told me to leave. It was only then that I noticed the sunglasses and especially the ear peace hooked up to his ear. It was then that I remembered the campus newspaper from the day before saying President Clinton was stopping by our campus for a speech of some sort.

Run In Number Two:

I happened to be doing some dishes when I saw a black SUV pull up in front of our house and a man step out. The SUV proceeded on down the dead end road and out of sight. I watched the man for a minute and he seemed to just be looking around. A car pulled up and he bent over to talk to the occupants and then the car turned and went down the hill the other direction. The man still stood there. I thought perhaps he was lost and asking for directions from the previous car driver but they hadn't known and proceeded on. Being a good neighbor, I walked out my door and across the lawn to where the guy was standing and asked if I could help him. He said that the dead end road (from just beyond my driveway) was closed due to an important official meeting being held and he apologized for any inconvenience. I told him it was no inconvenience to me at all and bade him a good day. It was at that point, that I noticed he too had the earmarks of a secret service agent but didn't have the glasses and if he had some sort of communication device, it wasn't obvious. The next day in the daily newspaper, I read the article where the neighbor a few doors down from my house hosted presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for a meet and greet with local Democratic party big wigs. 

Technical Run In Number Three:

I don't really count this as a secret service run in but at my previous house, presidential candidate Obama, whom recently was granted secret service protection, was coming to our fair town for a rally. My parents and I hiked the few blocks to the rally site and positioned our camp chairs along a rope barrier we though just separating us from the stage. As it turned out, it was a roped off walkway for candidate Obama to walk to the stage from his tour bus. As he came down the walkway, he started shaking hands and so we stood up to shake the man's hand. As he approached, a few feet in front of him were a couple secret service agents eyeing those Obama was approaching, looking for I presume threats. They went on by and Obama shook our hands. After his entourage passed, everyone sat down again and that was when I noticed a ballpoint pen about a foot inside the roped off area. I crouched down and picked it up. I don't remember what exactly it said on the pen if anything but I do know it didn't have any presidential seals or words saying that it might have belonged to the president or staff. I was pretty sure it hadn't been there before he passed by though.  I'm pretty sure I kept if just the same for awhile but either I've forgotten what it looked like or it has since been purged of ink and thrown out.

Comments

  1. Darn it, now I've got that song 'Secret Agent Man' looping in my brain! These were some cool encounters Ed, interesting that they were all Democratic president run-ins. I just watched a JFK doc on Hulu last night that said in 1960, Secret Service consisted of 34 men; today's president has 100 times that.

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    1. It is interesting that it has all been Democratic run-ins but it wasn't for the lack of trying. On a lark, my parents and I attempted to get into a presidential candidate Trump rally once but due to the large number of people, we gave up. I have attended a couple rallies of various republican presidential candidates but none have gone on to even get the nomination much less win the presidency and never got a secret service detail.

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  2. I have strains of a song trying to get into my head, but I can't say that I recall much of it.

    ... Further thinking led me to Secret Agent Man. https://youtu.be/6iaR3WO71j4

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    1. Unfortunately, I know that song well. I think the radio station of my youth played it at least a dozen times a day and even to this day, I can still sing most of the words. But it didn't cross my mind when I titled this post or I would have titled it Secret Agent Man.

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  3. Ed, the only Secret Service related event I have had is one the Previous Occupants was in New Home and completely shut down end of work commute traffic. The individual earned more than one epithet from what I suspect were all political party members when part of the delay was later revealed a dinner on a whim. You can mess with a lot of things here, but commute traffic is not one of them.

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    1. Fortunately we live in a rural enough place that Present Occupants never stop by and those campaigning, do so by bus so they can have lots of amenities at hand in-between stops.

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  4. You gotta wonder why that first Secret Service agent had to be so obnoxious. This is what I don't get about some cops. I understand they're doing a job, but can't they be polite? Couldn't the guy have said, "Sorry sir, the Memorial Union is closed today"?

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    1. He probably said that to the first thousand students that did what I did. If it has been me, I would have put a barricade up stating it was closed and stationed the secret service agent between it and the building and he probably would have had a much more pleasant day.

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  5. So cool! I love to watch those CIA/secret agent/get the bad guys movies. And secretly I want to be one.

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    1. I certainly wouldn't want to be one. They have to work crowds while I actively try to avoid them.

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  6. Before he was president, I shook Ronald Reagan's hand at a speech at the former Sicks Stadium in Seattle.

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    1. I've shaken the hands of several contenders but Obama was the only one who became president.

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  7. I always remember my Little Rock relatives complaining of the disruptions in traffic, etc. any time Clinton came back to Arkansas.

    Yep, I've got that ear worm now.

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    1. I can't imagine and hope that never happens where I live.

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  8. Cool stories. As far as I know, I have never had anything close to this happening. We did go to an Obama speech before he became president so that is the only time I saw a lot of secret service dudes in person. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Ed.

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  9. I not only met some secret agents, they did a pat-down of me and Cliff, and waved wands around us as well as looking in my purse. One Easter weekend we were in Georgia to visit our son and his family, and drove down to Plains, Georgia to sit in former President Carter's Sunday School class. It was an experience I don't think I'll ever forget. After church, he and Ros went outside and let everyone who wanted to get a picture taken with them. We have one, but I was so fat at the time, I hate for anybody to see it.

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    1. That sounds so neat to do something like that. I would have allowed a pat down just to attend Sunday School with President Carter.

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  10. Funny thing how that song can be an ear worm. I’m hearing it now…
    I think it’s so much fun that you got to see these agents at work. That’s got to be a very stressful job.

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  11. My ex-BIL was a part the the presidential guard. He traveled all over the world with Ronald Reagan. He never owned a camera.

    You've studied these guys close enough, and often enough. Next step? Maybe you need to join up. :D

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