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FEATURED PROJECT:
"One For The Gipper"
I have recently been honored with the task
of restoring an old photograph of Ronald Reagan.
A client of mine sent me the following explanation
along with the photo:
The Picture:
It was spring of 1968, and a small band of conservatives
was trying to get California Governor Ronald
Reagan on the Ohio Republican primary to oppose
Gerald Ford. They needed enough signatures to
get Ronald Reagan on the ballot in all 88 Ohio
counties, but with only two weeks before Ohio's
May primary, they had enough signatures in only
42 counties. Gov. Reagan was planning a countrywide
tour to rouse support in the primaries, and
my mom and dad contacted his office to arrange
a stop in Columbus, Ohio. Senator Jesse Helms,
who was functioning as Reagan's chief of staff,
agreed, and a rally was arranged for Port Columbus
airport in front of Lane Aviation. Unfortunately,
one of Reagan's junior staffers neglected to
consider time zones when he planned the trip,
so by the time Reagan landed in Columbus, he
was already 2 hours late, and the crowd had
already started to get thin. This shot was taken
just as Reagan stepped off his plane and climbed
on top of the hay wagon that was to be his speaking
platform. In the lower left, you can see one
of the leggy blondes who had been engaged to
give the occasion some, ah, interest; and just
past my dad you can see a very young-looking
Senator Helms. The wind blowing the flag was
from Ohio Governor Jim Rhode's helicopter hovering
immediately overhead. He was measuring the size
of the crowd, trying to decide whether it was
big enough to merit landing and greeting Ronald
Reagan. It wasn't, in his opinion, so he flew
away (oh well, his loss).
The Crime:
When I was about 8 or 9, I thought a really
cool Mother's Day gift would be to organize
my mom's messy desk. To my way of thinking,
this entailed throwing away almost everything
on it. This picture, face down on her desk,
looked like just another blank piece of scrap
paper, so I crumpled it up and through it away.
Needless to say, when my mom came home and found
what I had done, she did not take it in the
true Mothers' Day spirit. Everything came right
back out of the trashcan onto her desk, and
her hand came right back down on my behind.
She has never let me forget that day, and I
have never been able to reach across that desk
without breaking into a cold sweat.
The Solution:
You can help heal this rift in our family and
restore my sanity!
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