A Certain Encounter: Nelson Rockefeller

In April of 1975 I was in the first grade. My parents thought that it would be a good idea to take a family vacation to Washington D.C. Although I was only not quite 7 years old at the time I can remember this vacation very well. One of the reasons might have been the distance involved in getting there. We lived in Massachusetts. Back in those economic crunch times when petro was at a premium, small economy cars began to saturate the market. My father bought a Pinto, you remember...that small Ford hatchback that would blow up when it was rear ended? It was an ugly puke brown, but I can remember that car fondly. There were five of us going on the trip; my parents, myself, my twin brother, and my 11 year old uncle. Needless to say it was a tight fit in the Pinto. We awoke early on Saturday morning, it was still dark and us kids were still tired so my father put down the backseat. We three children lay down to sleep with our heads against the back waiting for a car to rear end us so that we would be killed instantly and suffer no pain. These were in the days before seat belts became mandatory. In this paranoid day and age my parents would probably be carted off and charged with child endangerment. Then, when my father would complain to the arresting officer and bite his tongue in anger he would be sent to Guantanamo Bay as a security threat. But...alas...those were the days! It was 1975, not 2012. I can remember waking up.The sun was just coming up and I remember the Empire State building standing majestic against the New York skyline like a great needle beckoning the god's of capitalism. Anyway, we arrived in Washington that afternoon. I don't remember the exact day, but sometime during that week, in the late afternoon, I crossed paths with the subject of this post...then Vice-President of the United States Nelson Rockefeller.

                             Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979)
   
      Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was born into a life of privilege in 1908. He was the grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller. His maternal grandfather was former Rhode Island Senator and Federal Reserve co-founder Nelson Aldrich. He graduated from Dartmouth and for a while worked in various acts of the family business,including a stint as President of Chase National bank which later became the hydra known as Chase Manhattan. Rockefeller became governor of New York in 1959 by defeating the incumbent Averell Harriman. As governor, Rockefeller was known as a big spender. He was big on making improvements and modernizing New York's roadways and infrastructure. He was also instrumental in the building of low-income housing. He also formed a narcotics commission which supposedly counteracted drug trafficking, but usually accomplishes very little and costs much. Rockefeller stepped into the Vice-Presidency after Richard Nixon resigned and the new President Gerald Ford appointed him to the second spot. He had always desired the top spot for himself, having run for President on three different occasions, but apparently his name must have had a stigma attached to it (Rockefeller=Money) which forced the Corporatists to prop up other less conspicuous candidates (Nixon,Johnson, Ford) to the supposed highest office in the land. Rockefeller died in 1979.

                          Rockefeller and Ford in the Oval Office in March, 1975
    
     We were walking on the sidewalk close to the White House on this sunny April afternoon in 1975. About a block in front of us were a man and a woman walking together. Suddenly the man shouted out "look it's Vice President Rockefeller!" Looking up I can remember seeing two black limos coming around a corner at a slow rate of speed. The first one passed us, it's windows as black as the ace of spades. However, the second one coming along side of us had it's rear window on the passenger side partly rolled down. I could see a man wearing what I took, and still believe to be horn rimmed glasses looking out at us, his head tilted somewhat downward at an angle. His countenance was stoic-like as if made of stone. There was a certain sense of great power and formal dignity associated with the countenance, yet when we raised our hands and waved...I could see a hand raise up which was attached to an arm of this somewhat omnipotent and regal form. He had waved back to us! Had I also detected a faint trace of a smile on his hardened face? Was this possible? The car rolled by and we watched until it had amalgamated with the Washington scenery in the distance. It has been 37 years since this fleeting, inconsequential and otherwise unimportant incident which is almost not even worthy to bring to any ones attention. After I am gone...and my brother and uncle too, it will disappear into the recess' of time as if it had never occurred. Time distorts a persons memory of things, especially when there are many layers of forgotten and somewhat garbled memories stacked up on older ones. My brother remembers things a little different...for instance,the car coming into view from a dip in the road instead of coming around a corner...but does it really matter? As hardened as I am toward the Corporatist state, and how it might be destroying our country, I cannot help but hold a soft spot for one of them...he couldn't be all that bad...Rocky...the man who was almost President...he waved, and smiled...and with that... he was human.