Have you ever met a presidential candidate? (A place to share your story)

[angrychair]

71. I am fortunate

I have got a pat on the head/shoulder to a hand shake from every president since Jimmy Carter with the exception of TSF but also including presidential candidates Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders.
I was a little kid when I met president Carter (Pat on the head) 50 years ago to pat in the shoulder and a slight smile from President Biden about 2 years ago as he was working the line.
Funniest story was the lead up to meeting president Obama. It's during sequestration in 2013 and I worked at a defense contractor in which he was coming to speak to highlight the impact of it in defense and those jobs. I volunteered to be part of a of staff that would help direct people and setup chairs and so on.
Several days before he came they wanted us to met with some of the forward staff and Secret Service as we would have some limited access within the back areas. I was busy and forget to bring steel toes to get to the building where the meeting and event were being held. My FIL had worked at the same company but had passed away not long before that in an accident and a member of his staff had brought me his stuff from his desk that included an old pair of steel toe shoes.
I quickly put them on and made my way to the building.
Here is where it gets interesting. We are being moved about in the back areas which had already been secured and people were setting up in different areas. As we are being walked around and talked to we hear yelling from behind us to stop.
Apparently the shoes I grabbed were very old and the soles were falling apart and leaving these little crumbling pieces of black rubber everywhere I walked 😵‍💫
I was so embarrassed. Everyone had a laugh and things went fine, got to shake hands with the president on the day of the event. It's funny now but so embarrassing at the time