[Geysers] Ford at Old Faithful

[Laurie Brown]

  During the 1976 presidential campaign, Gerald Ford was at Old Faithful to give a nationally televised speech. Yes, talk about changes in attitudes, changes in security. 

  Ford's speech was advertised well in advance. Bleachers were built for the crowd, as was a platform and podium for the president. All the news media was there (which I guess in 1976 means NBC, CBS, ABC and maybe nothing else) with their big vans and antennas. Sure there was security -- it included such things as National Capitol Police on horseback, ranger-naturalists (me!) handing out program brochures (yes, the presidential program, not the NPS program). Somebody was talking about a helicopter moving up and down every time Old Faithful had preplay. Well, I was one of those uniformed sorts and I don't recall that. I do recall Ford timing his speech along with coaching so that when the thing finally erupted (only a minute or two "late"), the speech got to [paraphrase] "great wonders such as this."

  Hundreds if not thousands of people. No real access restrictions that I recall, certainly people all over the place. Yes, there were "observers" atop the Inn and such, but...

  Well, I guess I'm getting old. I feel the restrictions that resulted from Obama's visit were ridiculous. I sure am glad I wasn't part of a family on my once-in-a-lifetime visit, one day in paradise. Closing a place such as Old Faithful on a free-entry weekend was absolutely stupid.

  And if Obama hears that -- good.

  Scott Bryan



  ****************************

  Sad to say, the times have changed for the worse, and not necessarily because the president wants it that way. There have been a lot more threats against Obama than against past presidents; he can't really go out without that kind of security like he did when he was a senator. 

  Laurie Brown, Dark Phoenix
  lauriebr at netw.com
  http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/103910/laurie_brown.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20090819/c1822de2/attachment.html>