“Look out!” I hollered, and then looked toward the driver who was backing out of the parking space. He’d nearly hit me as I walked toward my car, but I smiled as soon as I saw who it was behind the wheel. No matter your politics, you extend an amount of courtesy and respect to a man who was next in line for the US presidency.
Even if it’s after a near-miss auto-pedestrian event.
Carl Albert was retired by then, and maybe he was used to having a personal driver. Regardless, I survived the incident and got a friendly wave from him out of it.
Saw his name on the spine of a book during a weekend book-scouting run, and I couldn’t resist looking inside. I’m always tickled when there’s a signature inside the cover. Mr Albert signed this copy back in 1990. The handwriting is a little shaky, but he was 82 years old at the time – a few years older than he was the day we nearly bumped into each other in the parking lot. Literally.
It’s a bit of shame that the book has fallen out of the hands of the original owner’s family. It was inscribed to a granddaughter of a woman who had worked in Carl Albert’s first congressional campaign in 1946.
Mr Albert was born in a little community near Eufaula called Bug Tussel, but maintained an office in McAlester after his retirement from politics. As the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mr Albert would have assumed the presidency during the Nixon administration, had the president been removed from office by impeachment. (Nixon resigned instead, as you recall.) Vice-President Spiro Agnew had already resigned, and the vacated office left House Speaker Carl Albert as the next in the line of succession to the big office.
The occasion escapes me now, but I interviewed Mr Albert at his office one afternoon. It was something I could have easily accomplished over the telephone, but I wanted to meet him in person. To date, he remains the highest ranking Oklahoman ever to serve his country in elected office. Heck. There was even a bust of him mounted on a pedestal in front of the federal building at McAlester.
In fact, I had fielded what I thought was a crank phone call early one morning, when a tipster advised me that “Carl Albert was at the bottom of the McAlester Motor Inn swimming pool.” I phoned his office and his secretary assured me that Mr Albert was doing just fine at his desk.
It wasn’t until later in the day that I discovered my tip didn’t involve the man himself – just his bronze likeness. Some prankster had dislodged it from the granite mounting and carried it off before getting cold feet (or getting sober) and ridding himself of it. The former speaker was netted from eight feet of crystal clear water, and once landed, was returned to his place of honor on (where else?) Carl Albert Parkway.
That was the day I began taking all news tips seriously. At least long enough to determine if there might be some statue-fishing truth to any fishy-sounding story.
When I got the book back to the shop, I kicked myself a little. There probably aren’t too many folks who even remember Mr. Albert and his service to the US, or the small-town Oklahoma upbringing that started a journey to one of the nation’s highest offices. The book may be a long-term occupant here in the store.
But that’s okay. I’ll consider the book a souvenir of the day I crossed paths with a high-falootin’ politician and lived to talk about it. I couldn’t save him from the swimming pool back then, but Mr Albert can keep me company here in the shop as long as he likes. Or until I find him a good home.
And he needn’t fear the backing-up of the bookcart.
Come visit!
McHuston
Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!