How to catch a Quayle... Weekend assignment

(this is an assignment for another journal... a little late, but I was a lousy student, old habits die hard.)

My most memorable celebrity encounter.... thats an easy one.  Dan Quayle, the then Vice President of the United states! This was back in 90 I believe.  He was in town for a big Troop Support Ralley, so I loaded the boys up and went to see him at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina.  It was nice, and believe it or not, he actually gave a very nice, intelligent speech.  Afterwards, he got down off of the stage and walked around the hangar shaking everyone's hands.  I had my youngest son in my arms, and the other two boys were hanging on to me.  I leaned over when Mr. Quayle walked by and held out my hand.  I admire that he actually made eye contact when he shook my hand and greeted me with a smile.  Most politicians are too busy looking around to make eye contact. 

Unfortunately for Mr. Quayle that eye contact was his big mistake and as he moved away he lurched forward.  The black-suited Secret Service guys scrambled into defense positions, theirs hands poised for action as they surrounded the Vice President.  He had stumbled but not fallen.  Still there was an immediate frenzy of action.  I freaked then too because I realized that my middle son Zack was missing!  Then, to my dismay I realized what had happened.... The Vice President had tripped over my son!  I grabbed Zack from between the barrier of Secret Service legs and pulled him to my side and hoping I could melt into the crowd before anyone saw.  To this day I don't know that any of them realized what had really happened, and even if they did, I doubt that they would admit that a 3 year old had broken their perimeter.  Zack gets a kick out of it though, something about almost knocking a politician on his face brings a grin to his face!