The Democratic Party just completed their convention in Chicago. This is the twelfth time the party has met in the Windy City. The first Chicago Convention saw the young Republican Party choose an Illinois attorney named Abraham Lincoln. The most (in)famous convention was when the Dems met there in 1968, which could be the most tumultuous year in American History. People forget they met there in late August 1996.

Incumbent President Bill Clinton decided to go ‘old school’ and travel to the convention by train from Huntington, West Virginia to my hometown of Michigan City, Indiana. The journey was called the 21st Century Express.

In the 1968 Democratic primary, Robert Kennedy visited Michigan City to campaign for the Democratic nomination and my mother took me to see him speak. Thanks, Mom. Six weeks later he was assassinated…what could have been?

Sometime in the early 1980s, I was driving nonstop from southwest Florida to Michiana with my boss’s daughter in his Cadillac. I pulled into a Wendy’s in McDonough, Georgia to grab and go. Jimmy Carter and his family were walking to their vehicle. I could have met an ex-president, but after a long drive and more to go, I do recall muttering “Son of a, that’s Jimmy Carter.” We laughed, grabbed food and drove on. I’d like a do-over on that. I want to see him make one hundred on October 1st, no president has done it.

Now, I have a chance to see the actual sitting POTUS. I was teaching and coaching girls’ basketball in Bridgman, MI, not far away. Michigan had its sports seasons differently back then. A group of four of us, including two players, went. We passed through a magnetometer with a Secret Service agent reminiscent of the Ving Rhames in the movie “Dave” glaring at us.

Two memorable things happened. The first was something I noticed. While someone else was speaking, an aide handed the president a note. His face changed from campaign mode, his head tilted- laughing, smiling, clapping to very serious. I found his transformation fascinating, like a light switch. He studied the paper, spent a few seconds in deep thought, and folded the paper and put it in his suit jacket pocket.

The next day, America learned that his chief campaign advisor had resigned due to the discovery of an involvement with a prostitute. To this day, I think Clinton was informed right then and there on that stage. It would have been very important to alert him on stage, and it was. While the Prez pondered, Congressman Tim Roemer saw a sign in the crowd. He tapped Clinton on the arm, pointed, and the metamorphosis was reversed. In a Jekyll and Hyde-like switch, Bill Clinton saw the sign, pointed, laughed, and was back. It was phenomenal.

When the speech ended, Bill Clinton left the stage to “press the flesh.” I think some candidates do this out of duty, but he always seemed to enjoy it. I uttered something like “This may my only chance to shake a president’s hand” and left my group. He moved to his left, my right, so I headed in that direction and aggressively worked my way toward the rope line, courtesy and consideration of others be damned. A twelve-year-old kid yelled, “I got him!” He did, and I picked that boy up and out of my way and reached up and shook some very long fingers. I did it too. The nerdy kid who memorized the presidents in second grade shook the hand of a president.