It was Monday, July 6, 1959. I had graduated from college only four weeks earlier and in the weeks since then, every day had brought a new experience. I had been a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding in central Illinois. I had moved to the Chicago area and begun a job as a technical librarian in the Research Division for the company now known as Corn Products International. And I was temporarily living in one room in a western suburb. Even more important, I was getting married in ten weeks and was swamped with things to do related to the wedding and setting up housekeeping.
After coming home from work, I raced to catch a commuter train to downtown Chicago where I connected with my fiancée, who was from Chicago and was working as an engineer in an office in downtown Chicago. We planned to browse at the well-known, eight-story John M. Smyth store on Michigan Avenue. Since we didn’t have an apartment yet, we intended only to look and not to buy.
While we looked at the furniture on the second floor, we heard a commotion coming from the windows, which faced Michigan Avenue and were open. We walked over to the windows and peered out. There waving to cheering bystanders as their car slowly passed were Queen Elizabeth, the Head of State in the United Kingdom, and her husband, Prince Philip.(1) They were in Chicago to celebrate the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and had traveled to the city on the royal yacht Britannia. The Seaway was of economic advantage to Chicago, which had Lake Michigan as its east boundary, because it provided access for transoceanic ships carrying goods to and from Chicago via the Great Lakes. Although I doubt the royals could see us, we waved back.
Even though my fiancée and I hadn’t planned on buying anything, we made our first home purchase that day. We couldn’t resist a bargain and bought a sturdy Pennsylvania Dutch chair for $11.
The chair wasn’t especially comfortable, but it outlasted our marriage. With the exception of family photos, school textbooks, and documents such as school diplomas, it’s the oldest item I own. The chair currently sits in my bedroom where I use it when I do sitting-down stretches during my daily morning exercise routine. It’s also a handy spot to place blankets and pillows while I make the bed.
The Pennsylvania Dutch chair bought at the John M. Smyth store on July 6, 1959 as Queen Elizabeth’s retinue proceeded north on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I recovered the seat myself many times through the years and had the chair professionally refinished in 2005.
In my 70+ years of life, I’ve only seen one other person who was a head of state and that also was unintended. On May 4, 1968, I saw George Romney, the governor of Michigan, while watching the Blossom Parade in Southwestern Michigan. I had two children, ages 6 and 4, and our family was visiting my parents who lived in the area.
Romney, who was running for the Republican Party 1968 nomination for presidential candidate, was smiling broadly, nodding his head, waving, shaking hands, and grasping elbows as he walked the parade route. He also shook hands with some of the children who came near to get a piece of hard candy that some in his retinue were throwing to the audience. I’ve never been a pushy parent, but thinking my children might get to shake the hand of a future president, I encouraged them to go for some candy. They went and came back happy with their candy, but since Romney didn't become president, I don't remember if they shook his hand.
Famous people don’t especially attract me, and I’ve never made an effort to see them. Nevertheless, because Queen Elizabeth and George Romney were famous, my unexpected encounters with them found a place in my memory.
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Queen Elizabeth will be 85 on April 21, 2011. She “became Queen at the age of 25, and has reigned through more than five decades of enormous social change and development.†(2)
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George Romney withdrew from the presidential contest, but went on to serve as Richard Nixon’s Secretary of Housing and Development. He is the father of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and prospective 2012 presidential candidate. George Romney died July 26, 1995.
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Notes
(1) The Official Website of the British Monarchy
(2) http://www.royal.gov.uk/HMTheQueen/HMTheQueen.aspx
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Romney
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Comments: 44
Suzanne often sees movie and TV stars, but being from West LA, she doesn't ever outwardly acknowledge them...against the code for locals. She just whispers to me..."that's so-and-so sitting over there." So I gawk, and she is disgusted with me.
I remember seeing Paul Newman sitting in the business class lounge in the San Francisco airport. We also saw Jesse Jackson sitting regally, dressed to the nines, in an airport somewhere...might have been O'Hare.
You mentioned the Blossom Parade. Not many people will know what that is, but of course, I do. Our high school marching band was in it every year. It's where I learned to dodge "road apples" without getting out of step or out of line.
I'm also famous by the Google standard. When I was working, I frequently made presentations at universities and conferences, was a co-editor of an environmental manual that was sold by two companies, served on the board of directors of the National Association of Physicians for the Environment, and was second VP of the National Association of Environmental Management. As dated as those activities are--I retired in 2002, a lot of that stuff pops up if I Google my name--there's even a reference to the manual in Chinese characters.
Mbeki is remembered mostly for his opposition to government policies to control the spread of Aids. Here's more on him if you are interested.
I know the answer, but I'll let you respond to her.
Also and I would count this as more infamous than famous. When we lived right outside of Cedar Falls Iowa we frequented a KFC where my parents got friendly with the manager. He eventually moved to Chicago but you may remember him, fellow by the name of John Wayne Gacy.
That just sent chills down my spine...
[Totally off subject. Sorry, but I was looking up reminiscence in my American Heritage dictionary. On the page was a "self portrait" of Rembrandt...he looks exactly like Muammar Ghaddafi!!!!]
(There was almost no security, apart from a few policemen standing around--no searches or anything of the sort. This was a few years ago at San Jose State, and the audience consisted of mostly students.)
The bridge, of course, was over the St. Joseph River. My sister currently lives in South Bend, which is named for a bend in that river.
I lived most of my youth a block from the St. Joseph River in Mishawaka, IN (named for a Shawnee Indian princess) and a few blocks from the fabled "south bend." The river was the source of adventure--there was a primitive island next to a brewery (a structure abandoned since prohibition, now a boutique mall)...jumping from rock to rock was required to reach the overgrown wilderness. Turtles, crayfish, tadpoles, the odd garter snake, mulberries, and storm sewer tiles all had to be investigated. The river runs too hard there for swimming--about one kid a year died trying it.
Benton Harbor was a mecca for me and my teenage geek friends as the home of the late Heath Company, provisioner of HeathKit electronics. The area has fallen into an economic depression with the loss of manufacturing--kitchen appliances, equipment and technical instruments.
Benton Harbor is just now in the news. Under a sweeping new Michigan law, the local city officials have essentially lost power to an emergency financial manager.
Benton harbor has had its problems the last few decades, but the state taking over and the law allowing them to do so are wrong.