About to
turn 7 yrs old in 4 days, our daughter Megan was enjoying not only all the
Easter Egg Roll activities but wearing her full access pass for helping me she
had the run of the White House grounds. Patti was at home with her home care helper.
Loading
up and ready to depart I could not find Megan and ‘assumed’ we were playing a one
sided game of hide and seek.
Notice
the foil paper mask Megan is modeling in the collage? Well she decided to hide in our van
figuring I would search the grounds first. Our van was parked directly in front
of the Oval Office.
With
2013 vision can you even imagine how relaxed security was 18 years ago?
Two
Secret Service agents had decided to conspiratorially join my search. As we
passed the van, Megan startled us by suddenly sliding open the passenger
side door wearing her mask, yelling boo at the top of her lungs and
jumping from the van like some crazy character.
Shrubbery
seemed to bloom with armed men as did the White House Roof. “Stand Down” was
barked and repeated into microphones.
Following
a lecture to a certain almost 7 year old about not yelling and lunging
from a van parked within yards of the Oval Office, we drove on out. Exiting the
gate we felt like celebrities as our van was mobbed by camera wielding tourists.
At 9:05
AM the next morning April 19th home grown terrorists disgruntled
over the Federal Government’s handling of the Waco siege of the Branch Dravidian
compound used the 2nd anniversary to attack the Federal Building in Oklahoma
City with a truck bomb.
Reading today
about the search for normalcy in Boston, I couldn't help but reflect back and IMHO
April 18, 1995 was the last ‘normal’ day in the America that I grew up in.
Patrick Leer
Health Activist:
Caregivingly Yours, MS Caregiver @ http://caregivinglyyours.blogspot.com/
My Lung Cancer Odyssey @ http://lung-cancer-survivor.blogspot.com/
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