Yesterday, I had the rare opportunity to go downtown with a friend to say goodbye to a former President. We went down for the viewing of Gerald R. Ford, the 38th President.As most of my friends were in college while Ford was president, we were not really tuned in to what was going on in the "real world" at that time. We typically caught up on the world news by tuning in to Saturday Night Live in those early days and watched Chevy Chase as he stumbled across the stage doing his weekly imitation of President Ford.
My college classmates and I also have another interesting recollection of President Ford. We attended St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. President Ford was invited to speak at Notre Dame on the morning of March 17, 1975.
As you know, March 17 is St. Patrick's Day. Given the school nickname for Notre Dame is the Fighting Irish, you can imagine the parties that weekend. In addition, this particular year, St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday, and Spring Break started at the end of classes that afternoon. We were excused from classes that morning to hear President Ford speak. I was only a freshman, so we more or less followed the rules at that point, but many of the older students were filling the bars by 7:00 am that morning.
We finally got over to Notre Dame for the speech, and we got great seats. I still remember the beginning of President Ford's speech. He really did his homework and made an effort to relate to the students. For a little background here, the drinking age in South Bend, Indiana was 21 at that time. South Bend is located 2 miles south of the Michigan border. The drinking age in Michigan was 18. There were quite a few bars located just across the border in Michigan that were frequented by the St. Mary's and Notre Dame students. However, there were generally problems getting transportation up to Michigan, since most of the students did not have cars. Even if there were cars available, then there were the usual drinking and driving issues. In order to alleviate this transportation dilemma, Notre Dame and St. Mary's ran a bus each weekend whose sole purpose was to pick up the students on the two campuses and drop them off at the bars. When the fun was over, the students would once again hop on the bus for a safe ride home. This bus was known as the "Quickie."
Anyway, President Ford started his speech by noting the different methods of transportation in the various communities. He said, "...some communities have the monorail, some communities have the subway, and Notre Dame has the Quickie." The audience roared, and he had our attention.
Another interesting piece of history occurred in conjunction with President Ford's visit. The combination of St. Patrick's Day on the Friday preceding Spring Break and President Ford's speech resulted in an unprecedented party in South Bend that weekend. To this day, when the the proposed academic calendar is issued showing school in session for St. Mary's and Notre Dame, the town residents put up a protest. So, the day that President Ford spoke was the last time that Notre Dame and St. Mary's were in session on St. Patrick's Day. Somehow, Spring Break always fall the week of March 17!!!!
The other unique thing about President Ford for me is that, as far as I know, he is about the only president in recent history that I can remember who did not sign a major piece of tax legislation that I have to deal with on a daily basis. Most of the other presidents have kindly provided us with an annual update to the "Tax Accountants Full Employment Act."
I thought I would share the adventure my friend and I had yesterday. We may have some pictures that are a little different than the ones you have seen hour after hour on TV. Since I am learning the ropes on publishing this blog, I am going to do this story in several posts so I can get a number of pictures included. Please bear with me as I try and figure out how all of this works and getting the pictures published, etc. I hope you enjoy our story.
The picture above is one of those posted right outside the Capitol included in the official exhibit.
