I will never forget the time my mother almost killed Ralph Nader.
It was late
summer or early
fall of 1996, when
Nader was running his very weak
campaign for the office of
President of the United States. Said mother, my aunt
Shelley, and I had just attended a Nader
rally at
Benson Polytechnic High School in
Portland,
Oregon. We walked to the
car and my
mom started to drive us home, but Shelley noticed Nader and his small
entourage egressing from the back of the school about a block away. Having a certain...
fascination with him, Shelley insisted that we drive over there so she could see him up close, perhaps
say hello. And so, we headed over in that direction.
Mr. Nader proceeded to jaywalk1 along with his staff to their car.
Right in front of us.
In truth, we weren't actually in danger of hitting him, though we did have to slow down, and the encounter inspired a mild look of terror in Nader's face. Needless to say, it didn't quite go as my aunt had hoped. We did roll down the window and have a brief exchange with the man, but as I remember it was awkward and unnotable.
Fortunately for my mother, I don't think that Nader remembered this incident four years later when she helped chauffeur him about Portland on a campaign stop.
(1) dirt! dirt! I have dirt on a politician!