Have you ever met a president?

Ever build a house with Jimmy Carter? 

Dodge a golf ball hit by Gerald Ford?

Or maybe your parents took you to see Dwight D. Eisenhower.

As the inauguration of the nation's 44th president approaches, we're asking you to share your memories of meeting or seeing a president in person.  Although a president's image appears everywhere, it's still a rare thing to see one live, so tell us what you remember.

Leave your reminiscences here.  Got a photo or video?  We'd love to see those too -- submit them at Your Scene (photos should be in .jpg format; video files may be .avi, .dv, .mov, .qt, .mp4, .mpeg, .3gp, .asf, .wmv, .mpg or .mp3 files and should be no larger than 7 megabytes).

Photo: President John F. Kennedy smiles as he is surrounded by fans after going for a swim in the ocean behind his brother-in-law's home in Santa Monica.  Credit: Bill Beebe/Associated Press.

Comments

[Barbara]

I have seen three presidents but did not speak with them: Reagan, Ford, Bush 41. My sister, Meg, saw JFK, lucky girl!

[Wayne S.]

In 1976, while I was still studying at USC, I was director of the Glendale Continentals Youth Band and we were invited to play for President Ford at a fly-in rally at the Van Nuys Airport. Air Force One landed, he came out and we played the Star-Spangled Banner and another band played Hail to the Chief. After his speech, we were playing and he walked over to the band and shook my hand, saying, "Thank you, sir." He posed with me for a few seconds while photos were snapped (which I never got a print of!), and walked off to the plane. Immediately afterwards, one of his advance men also thanked us and handed me a small box, which contained a tie clip with the Presidential Seal and Ford's signature engraved on the bar. I wore that clip for years.

[Paul M. Mock]

I was an Allegheny Airlines employee when Carter was campaigning at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (PA) Airport in '76. As he strode across the tarmac to get to his car, I (among others) hurried to him to shake his hand. We were all surprised that we could have access to him so quickly. I was kinda scary. Nice guy. BIG teeth. Soft hands.

I was later with USAir in Rochester NY when Reagan campaigned in '84. Security was ENORMOUS and Air Force One's entrances were turned away from the public. When Reagan walked down the steps, he was such an imposing and impressive figure. We could get nowhere near him, but it was so neat to see that spectacular 707 up close and such and impressive presence of a man.

I later worked hard for Clinton's first campaign. Got to meet him at several West Hollywood rallies. Nice guy...promised us the world. A week after he got into office he betrayed our trust and I swore I'd never vote again!

[Rob]

Met Carter in a private White House tour in summer of '80 while interning in DC, met Clinton when he was the commencement speaker at law graduation in SF in '85 and went to college with Barry, I mean Barack, at Oxy from '80 to '81...funny how the only Presidents I meet are Democrats...

[Ann]

Ford while in office. Thanks to my young Golden Retiever who pulled the leash from my hand and bolted through the Secret Service who were waiting for Ford outside the Nat'l Rep. Center in D.C which I walked past on my way back to where I lived on the Hill. (Working as a Congressional aide at the time.) Pup was muddy from having been romping on the lawn of the Capitol and soaking wet from having been in the S. Ct. fountain. The agents grabbed the leash but missed and he sailed right on up to Ford and gave him the typical happy Golden greeting (ie: covering the recipient with hair, water etc.) He was lovely about it - petting the pup, asking the pup's age and which Congressman I worked for. (The Secret Service was snickering - something to do with their comments about how I couldn't be concealing a weapon or much of anything else in tight fitting gym sorts and a clinging halter top.)

[Warren]

I recall meeting a guy with a funny name who was from Hawaii and was a student at Occidential College in or about 1980. The guy was dating a girl that I knew from South Pasadena.

[Peter McCrossin]

My name is Peter McCrossin and I live in Melbourne, Australia. I worked for General Motors in my first job and clearly remember seeing President Ford during the 1976 election campaign. It was one of those whistle stop tours, and I saw him, and his entourage, in Lansing, Michigan, at a railway crossing.

He was on his way to Grand Rapids, his home town I believe. I think he was the only President to come from the State of Michigan, but I have been known to be wrong.

[norman]

In july of 1987, then Governor Bill Clinton was on his evening jog. He paused at the corner of 13th and Main in Little Rock long enough for my friend Gib and I to approach him. He wore a Jog-a-saurus t-shirt, slightly sweaty.

Gib asked if he had any intention of running for the presidency.

"Well", he said, "That would have to be a lo-o-ong way in the future."

Not so long into the future, his running mate, Al Gore, and a host of Secret Service folks jogged past me in the early morning. He gave me a hearty "Good Morning" and the guys with the curly wires coming out of their ears gave me a visual frisking.

[Jules]

Went to school (Orme) with Patti Reagan. She introduced me to her dad - I almost laughed out loud when I saw that signature brown suit. He was about as square as they came back then.

But Patti was pretty hip.

[Shawdog]

I was 12 years old in September 1951, when my mom, my older sister, and I took the train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, where, by chance, we were staying in the Palace Hotel. The Japanese Peace Treaty conference was taking place at the time, and, unbeknown to us, President Harry Truman was staying in the same hotel.

Standing in the lobby waiting to go up to our room, we were surprised when an elevator opened and there was President Truman with just a single Secret Service man accompanying him. He was certainly not more than five feet from us, and he had that big smile that we had all come to know so well from newspaper and magazine pictures.

[Virginia Pyke]

I worked for President and Mrs. Ford at their vacation houses in Vail, Colorado for three years. I taught school in the area and during the summer and at Christmas time, I would go in at 7:00 am to fix breakfast and fill in whatever they needed done before their regular help arrived.

Usually, President Ford was in the pool when I arrived. He would eat his breakfast and then Mrs. Ford would come in to have her breakfast. Many times, she and I would sit down and chat like next door neighbors. I was with her through the planning of the Betty Ford Center in the desert and through the building of their own house in Beaver Creek. I am a democrat, but I was so impressed with their integrity and devotion to our country. I feel our country lost a great man when he died. I also give Mrs. Ford my greatest respect for the work she accomplished and the struggles she faced in her life.

[Dave Smith]

I was temporarily living in Washington in 1964 when I read that Billy Graham would be preaching at the National City Christian Church. Knowing that LBJ was a good friend of Graham's, and that he often attended that church, I felt this would be my chance to meet him. As only church members were being admitted, I snuck in a side door, found a seat, and sure enough, just before the service started in came LBJ and his family, sitting a couple of pews in front of me. After the service when the congregation retired to the basement fellowship hall, I followed. LBJ was there but I couldn't get near him. Then I saw the Secret Service creating a pathway for the President to exit, and I stationed myself right there. As he came by, I stuck out my hand and got a presidential handshake.

[John Schmidt]

It was during Nixon's first term, around 1969. I was 13. He came back to visit his birthplace, my hometown of Yorba Linda, CA. I attended kindergarten and 1st grade right there, at Richard Nixon Elementary. There was a huge crowd, but somehow, there I was, shaking his hand and telling him how my family had seen him the year before in New York, walking out of a building after his meeting "with the Pope", (actually, it was a cardinal). He was polite, smiled and said "Oh!". I'm sure it made a deep impression on him.

[Ann Kochakji]

In 1963, just prior to the democratic convention, my father, brother and I were driving around downtown Los Angeles. We heard on the car radio that President Kennedy had arrived in Los Angeles and would be in the area. I don’t remember the streets, but we decided to try to see him. When we arrive at the expected location, we joined a crowd of people stationed on each side of the street. Shortly thereafter, his motorcade appeared and we saw him standing in an open car shaking hands with people on our side of the street. Just has he approached us, he changed sides. He was about ten feet from us. We were impressed that he was better looking in person and his pictures didn’t do him justice.

[Kaye Denison]

As a young college student in the 1960's I shared a song book with the then governor of California, Ronald Reagan, at Bel Air Presbyterian Church. It never ceased to thrill me or my future history students when I shared that story. I sat next to a president of the United States!

[Carl Dulgeroff]

I have seen a president at a football game and stood next to a future president. While stationed at Bainbridge Naval Base in Maryland, I went to an Army-Navy football game in 1949. President Truman was at the game. The next year, I was a plebe at the United States Naval Academy. I was on the plebe football team and ate at the training table. Dwight Eisenhauer was the president of Columbia University and visited the academy. He circled the training tables while we were standing. I was only about a foot from him, but I do not remember what he said.

[Virginia Brooks]

My mother's urging to "Get up, get up!" was not needed that chilly, pre-dawn morning in 1935. Our family was going to the baseball field in Wichita, Kansas (population at that time was 130,000) to see President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and hear him speak. I was 10 years old.

My interest in the 32nd president of the United States had begun when my mother and aunt had stayed up all night listening to radio reports and using paper and pencil to painstakingly tally Roosevelt's election win over then President Herbert Hoover in 1932. No instant vote count then flashing on t.v.

Hours later on that exciting morning, the Great One entered the stadium grounds in a large touring car, top down. Crippled by polio as a young man in 1921 and now on crutches, he was helped to a make-shift stage by attendants where he spoke in his customary eloquent and reassuring tones for about half an hour.

After, we left the stadium as fast as we could and positioned ourselves among the crowd that lined a nearby street. We had a close-up view of the smiling president who wore his trademark glasses clipped to his nose and a panama straw hat.

It was the begining of my personal admiration of a president who was to guide our country for a historical period of almost 4 terms.

[Fern]

My first sighting of a President was in 1937 when I was 14 years old. I was walking on Wilshire Blvd. near La Brea when a large open touring car carrying FDR drove by. He was waving and smiling his trademarked wave and smile from the back seat of the car.

In 1960 I took my 2 daughters (then 8 and 12) to the old LAX (when you could still get close to the incoming airplanes). We went to see Adlai Stevenson, and at the same time, JFK's plane arrived, and we saw them both exiting their planes.

In 1996 my daughters and I saw Bill Clinton from the rope line at an event in downtown LA. In 2001 we got to shake hands again at an event at the Universal Amphitheater.

In 2006, to return the favor of me taking my daughters to see JFK, my dauthers took me to see President-elect Obama--before he announced his candidacy--at a Democratic rally at USC.

Each meeting was memorable. But, the historical importance of Barak Obama's election makes my most recent "sighting" extraordinary.

[Murray Shapiro]

MY PRIVATE CHAT WITH CAPT. RONALD REAGAN [AND WHY I DID NOT MEET PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN.
I had just been discharged from the Army in late August, 1945, and had reentered UCLA. In early September, on my way to the campus, I decided to do what my dad did [who was a volunteer in WWI] and enrol as a member of the American Legion. I changed my mind after reading a front page story in the L.A. Times that morning which detailed the removal of the charter of the Hollywood American Legiion post for enrolling a Japanese American. [Years later I did join and became a life member after that policy was reversed].
On campus that morning were several posters advertising a noon meeting at the Religious Conference Building Auditorium [auditorium and building long since replaced by the huge Medical Center] for a discussion on a new veteran's group, The American Veteran's Committee. I decided to attend.
Arriving early I found i was the only vet there except for the speaker, Captain Ronald Reagan. Both of us were in uniform as civilian clothers were unabtainable until manufacturering plants could reconvert from war production. I could see by his insignia that Captain Reagan had been in the Signal Corps, I was in the Infantry, heavy weapons.
I had a 40 minute chat with Captain Reagan; or rather, a monologue as he did almost all of the talking trying to persuade me to join this new vet's group. He told me that while stationed in Calilfornia he had been able to do much research and that he was extremely worried about what he called, ...the coming American fascism." Later, when more vet's arrived and Reagan give his speech, I discovered he had used me to practice on. It was an excellent talk, but I did not join. I was liberal, but not that liberal as to believe that homegrown fascism was on the horizon.
Years later there was on opportunity to go to Washing, D.C. and be received by the Chief Executive, now President Ronald Reagan. All one had to do was become Teacher of the Year. Well I won Los Angeles City's pick; and then was lucky enough to be Teacher of the Year of Los Angeles County and was one of eight to go to Sacramento for the state competitiion; but I lost out there. So I never got to say, "Mr. President, do you remember....."

[Ellie Doud]

As a long time singer with Les Brown's Voices of Christmas, I was fortunate to meet former President and Mrs. Gerald Ford when our group performed at an annual benefit in Indian Wells, CA. The Fords, especially Betty, were involved in the Eisenhower Medical Center benefit, and were usually in attendance with Dolores and Bob Hope. My late husband took photos of the Fords and the Hopes at a few of these events.
One thing that often puzzled and amused our singers was that President Ford was often seen sitting with his eyes closed during the performances. We never were sure whether we'd put him to sleep, or whether he was merely resting his eyes while enjoying the music. Either way, we were pleased that he continued to appear at the concerts.

[Ethan Kimmel]

My dad and I were on the way to visit my grandmother in West L.A. As we were driving by Rancho Park Golf Course, my dad noticed some men wearing what looked like fishing vests standing inside the fence looking outward. He said it looked like a VIP was playing golf. He parked the car so we could see who it was. Sure enough, as the entourage approached the 13th green, we realized it was President Clinton! My dad said if we waved, he might come over (my dad later admitted it was an extreme longshot). But after he finished putting, the president walked out of his way about 40 yards over to the fence to visit with us. He said to me, "Hello, boy". My dad told him my name is Ethan and he replied "Hello, Ethan!" Next, he thrust his arm through a hole in the chain-link fence so he could shake hands with us (my dad later told me he was worried the leader of the free world might cut himself during the gesture!). We chatted with him for about three minutes, while a group of nervous Secret Service men and impatient VIPs and golfers waited. Needless to say, I was the only four year-old at my pre-school who had a private visit with the president.

Later, we went to dinner at Jerry's Deli. As we were waiting for our table, a man started a conversation with me and I told him about chatting with the president. He enjoyed the story. My dad told me the man was actor Robert Guillaume, who at that time was on a TV series portraying a politician. So technically you could say in a single day I met the president and "the governor".

[Chris Ames]

In 1971, as a very young radio reporter in Los Angeles, I was sent to the Orange County airport to cover the arrival of President Nixon. Now I detested this man. I had recently been arrested (yes, even as a reporter) at an antiwar demonstration, and my loathing of him knew no bounds. But at that airport, by some bizarre pre-9/11 happenstance, I found myself inside the rope line. And then I turned around. And then I saw him, maybe 5 feet away, coming straight toward me. And I must say, that was the moment I learned about the power of the office. Even this despicable creature had an aura about him that almost physically knocked me over. I stepped to the side and he blew by me. I was reminded of this moment in watching the new film Frost/Nixon, where a young man with convictions very similar to mine found himself facing Nixon's outstretched hand. Gradually, as if fighting some incredible force, he raised his hand and shook. Would I have done so? Probably, though I wish I could remember a kid who would have stood his moral ground more fiercely. Still, that vibe....

[pepper edmiston]

Close Encounters with President Reagan

In the early 1980's, I founded Camp Good Times, to help children with cancer like my son, David.

After our program was profiled in Reader's Digest, a woman called, claiming to be the Camp David operator. She said President Reagan was on the line.

Certain my brother, Michael, was tricking me, I played along. The "President" said he read about us and wondered how my son was doing.

After realizing it was, indeed, the leader of the free world, I invited the President to see camp. He and Mrs. Reagan visited us for four years and, on each occasion, were friendly and warm.

Once the President moved into his Century City office, our family went to see him. He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's but was still working.

I asked the President if he remembered me; he said he thought so. Then David, who, suffered brain damage from cranial radiation, embraced the President. The two of them held each other in one of the greatest hugs I've ever seen.

That was the last time we saw President Reagan. I have many fine images of him, but the most treasured is of the affection the President showed my son, David.

[CaroL Kaufman Segal]

In the summeer of 1944 I was hired to sing and dance at the Missouri State Fair in Caruthersville/Haiti, Missouri. Senator Harry S. Truman, who was running for Vice President under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came to the Fair to speak. When I finished singing "Stormy Weather" and walked off the stage, Bess, Margaret and Harry Truman were standing nearby and all of them told me how much they enjoyed my performance. What a thrill!

[Gary T. Ono]

As a budding photographer, working as a bureau assistant and Telephoto-operator, for the United Press International newspictures division in the early 60’s, I was included on a remote assignment UPI crew to cover the groundbreaking ceremony of the Oroville Dam in Butte County, California.

In a motel near the groundbreaking site, we set-up a photographic darkroom lab and a Telephoto machine that transmitted photographs over telephone lines, With this remote set-up, we could take pictures, process the film, print photographs and then transmit them to our San Francisco bureau where the optical-electrical signal reimaged our photograph onto films. When developed the negatives are used to print photographs for the San Francisco Bay Area newspapers. The same signals can be transmitted to other UPI bureaus in major cities throughout the United States and the World.

On the day of the groundbreaking ceremony, I accompanied our UPI photographer to a press area near the ceremony platform. Much to my excitement, President John F. Kennedy got out of his limousine and walked just a few feet pass where we were. He walked onto the platform to push a button that set-off an explosion to begin the excavation of dirt for the building of the dam. I would take the exposed film from our photographer back to our “remote” to process the film, print the pictures and then transmit them around the World.

Ironically, in 1963 I was drafted into the US Army and after basic training was to report to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. As I was being processed in on November 22, 1963, we heard on the radio that President Kennedy was shot and died in Dallas, Texas. Since it was a Friday and I was yet to be assigned my Army job, I caught a bus to the UPI office downtown. I was hired on the spot to work that weekend and evenings for a week after to help on this tragic and major story.

The Washington, D.C. UPI bureau was obviously very busy covering the return of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and President Kennedy’s body to the White House Friday and Saturday, the caisson procession to the Capitol building on Sunday and the burial at the Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, November 25, 1963. Four long days.