Hanging Out With The President of the United States of America

As I stand staring at the back of an udder on a Holstein cow, I am glad that this is the last group of animals to judge. It is cold and getting colder, my toes are frozen in my new pair of cowboy boots and this FFA jacket is too thin for this weather. It is St. Patty’s day and winter is still present in Laramie, Wyoming. At least I know the other contestants in this contest are feeling just as miserable because they are dressed the same way I am.

This journey started three months ago in Ag class. We were all supposed to visit four different farms, each with a different species of animals… Dairy, Swine, Beef and Sheep. On each farm there were four different animals. We were to pick the best to worst and classify it as A,B,C or D. At the end of this exercise all scores were accumulated and the four best scores in the class would form a team. This team would compete in a regional contest and if you won the regional, you would then compete in the State contest. If you won that then you would go to Kansas City and compete in the national contest. My team had won the regional contest and now we were in Laramie competing in the State contest.

I verify my choices, sign the score card and turn it in. We are done judging, and as a team we feel that we are pretty good, but none of us think we are good enough to go to the national contest. We are to gather the next day on the campus of the University of
Wyoming and get the results and be awarded individual and team trophies. I had already come to the conclusion that no matter what the awards were, I was a winner. I was not in some boring class back in Lovell High School and I was on a all expense paid trip to Laramie so my victory had already come. We were supposed to gather at the motel and wait for the instructors and chaperones to show up and tell us where to meet for supper and get tomorrow’s schedule.
They finally showed up and gave us vouchers to use at a café two blocks from the motel.
They gave us the standard talk about staying out of trouble. There would be a bed check at 10 PM and everyone was supposed to meet in the lobby at 8 AM for breakfast. We would then go to the conference center on campus for the awards ceremony. The 10 PM bed check was going to be a problem . I had a friend going to school there and plans had already been made for my night. I was quite sure that 10 PM was just a starting time. As the instructor gave me the food voucher I noticed that his teeth were green and thought that it was a strange thing to see, but my upbringing kept me from mentioning it. Some of us wandered on down to the café and had dinner and decided that we had plenty of time to walk down the main street of Laramie and check things out. As we passed a particular bar in Laramie I noticed that in honor of St. Patty’s day they were serving green beer and I also noticed that those who drank the beer would have green teeth. That bit of knowledge pretty much made the 10 PM bed check moot. I met my friends and got back in time for breakfast. We again gathered in a big hall and the awards were presented to the winners.

Our team took third, I placed in the top ten, and I was quite satisfied with our standings. At the conclusion of the ceremony it was announced that John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States was in town giving a speech on campus and that they were saving seats just for us to attend. The building he was speaking in was only a short distance
from our conference site so we all walked down the street to take our seats. As we approached the auditorium, two men approached our group and said that they were expecting us and that they would guide us to our seats. As we followed them we made our way past people standing in line and hundreds of filled seats. Finally at the very front row we took the seats that were assigned to us. The president was in Laramie to give a speech on a new Ag bill he was trying to push through congress and they had decided that a front row of young men wearing FFA jackets would be a great photo op. We arrived 30 minutes early and had to wait for the president to arrive. When it was finally time for
his speech, he came across the stage and stopped six feet in front of me . I was not particularly political but was mesmerized by this man and his gift of communication. When the speech ended and he stepped off the stage, he looked me straight in the eyes, shook my hand and thanked me for coming. He then went on down the line, shook hands with about twenty more people and left. Seven months later he was shot and killed in Dallas. I cried.