I guess I’m odd but I can’t think of a single person that I’d scream over, ask for an autograph from, or faint at the sight of. And that would include Mr. President. I might say “looky there, there’s Obama eating ice cream”, but that’s about it. My mother and I were in New York city once and spotted Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon in a bar. We walked by the bar a couple times to make sure it was them, giggled and then went back to our hotel.

When my family and I were in Washington a couple of summers ago, I took them to the Marine Memorial in Arlington to hear the Marine Band perform (I highly recommend this to anyone visiting or living in D.C. — Tuesday nights during the summer). Hillary Clinton was in the crowd the evening I was there, and after the band performance and a stirring rendition of Taps, the crowds swarmed the senator.

I thought I was going to barf.

I quietly walked my children to the back of the memorial where we found several young marines decked out in their dress blue uniforms. I crouched down in front of my children and said, “There’s the guys you want to meet.” The marines politely allowed us to make photographs of my kids with them. My son was mesmerized by those uniforms. We thanked several of them for their service and dedication to our nation.

When my children are older I hope they remember that their old man didn’t follow the crowd — a slobbering mass of fools — and put them onto the real heroes in our nation’s capital.

Thinking of Felix de Weldon’s marvelous memorial, my daughter said, “It must be dangerous to be a marine.”

Note: I had been in Washington for several days at that point, and those Marines were the first men to shake my hand like they were real men. There was a lot of limp handed metrosexuals in D.C., and a lot of them were in the senate and house office buildings.

Ampleforth on July 2, 2009 at 9:52 AM