The setup for this story is complicated, so bear with me.  I was visiting my parents home in Paducah, KY  last week and it happened to be the same week as the Kentucky primary election.  My mom was watching my kids for the day while I drove down to Mississippi to watch some former 3rd grade students of mine graduate from High School (yes.  I am very very old). 
 Anyway, it turned out that Bill Clinton was coming to Paducah to campaign for Hillary and my mom was debating whether to take the kids to go see him.  On one hand, she had decided to vote for Hillary and had been a big Clinton supporter back in the 90s.  On the other hand she was still mad at Bill over what we refer to as “the incident” and wasn’t sure that she could manage three kids at a campaign rally by herself.  So she decided to hedge her bets and just head over near when the event was starting.  She loaded up the double stroller with the boys and took Audra by the hand and set off.
 But as they were nearing the site she heard sirens and saw the motorcade coming into town.  Just then a secret service agent told my mom that she couldn’t cross the street and that she was going to have to stop where she was.  She was disappointed, but still excited to see the motorcade go by.  She said she looked in the limo and saw Bill Clinton chewing on a cigar.
 Now what I love about this is that my mom relates this fact as if she might say “and he had a pin stripe suit on.”  I, of course, am thinking “Oh my gosh!  He had a cigar?  How wildly inappropriate.”  If I was Bill Clinton, I would make sure I was never caught holding a cigar in my mouth again.  That’s sort of like Lizzie Borden using an ax as a walking stick.  Anyway…
 So, My mom and kids are watching the caravan pass by when it comes to a stop, Bill hops out and walks straight over to my mom and kids and says “Well you’ve got the best seat in the house,” and then proceeds to shake my whole family’s hand. 
 Now, I know there are some people who are not impressed by this.  To be fair, after this election cycle, I know tons of people who have shaken Bill’s hand.  And of course, there are some people who would probably rather not shake Clinton’s hand, just because he is Clinton, or at least not without having some purell on hand.  But I personally am thrilled that my kids had that opportunity.  I think it’s really cool that my 5 year old and two year old have shaken hands with a former president and a pretty good president at that…. Well, except for the, well….. you know.
 So my mom took the kids into the event and they were pretty good for awhile.  And my mom, being the League of Women Voters member that she is, took the opportunity to explain to Audra all about the election process and how we go listen to the different candidates so we can make a decision about who we’re going to vote for.  It was somewhere around this point that Audra started looking around and getting worried and whispered to my mom “Is it Ok that I’m here since I’m voting for Barack Obama?”
 That’s my girl.
 My mom explained that it was ok, but told me later that she had been really worried that Audra would say something about Obama in front of Bill.  She’s sort of prone to those kinds of outbursts. 
So shortly after that the kids started to lose it, as kids are apt to do and they all headed home.  A fun day of politicking and schmoozing with big wigs behind them.
 Later that evening Audra was on the phone with my wife, Sarah, telling her about the day:  “Well, we went to the park and then we went and saw Mr. …. Who was it?  Mr….. oh yeah, President Bill Clinton, and then we went and got a MILKSHAKE!”
 That’s right.  If you’re a five year old, it’s pretty cool to shake hands with a former president, but still not as cool as getting a milkshake.