My meeting with Intel #1
President-elect Barack Obama chose former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to run the CIA. Panetta was a surprise pick for the post, with little, if any, experience in the intelligence world. Panetta was director of the Office of Management and Budget and a longtime congressman from California. He currently directs, with his wife Sylvia, the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at Csumonterey Bay.
Now it isn’t every day that one brushes shoulders with someone in a position of mysterious power and potentially nebulous influence over the lives of every American, but I’m compelled to place a record of this encounter down for digital posterity.
I had just returned to Monterey, after a time of dire poverty up north, Seattle way. Needless to say I was in just as dire a state of poverty in Monterey, but finally had some work lined up, and needed to make some phone calls. I was too broke to even keep a cellphone, so I was routinely surrendering all my loose change to Pac Bell. (This is back when public pay-phones were still a thing.)
I was on Alvarado Street, downtown Monterey, in Ordway Pharmacy. I needed change to use the payphone outside. Since I also needed a number of sundries sold at the pharmacy anyway, I decided to get my change via a purchase. Along the way to the check-out, I also snagged myself a Tootsie Pop. Red. No, the flavor doesn’t matter — but the Tootsie Pop is essential to the story.
As I got to the counter, there was one person ahead of me... it was Leon Panetta.
He was getting a prescription filled — and yes, like Gelson’s Market in L.A., if you want to see celebrities doing mundane just-like-you-and-me daily tasks, Ordway Pharmacy is one of the places you might want to hang out when on the Monterey Peninsula — just don’t let your loitering become too obvious. Bruno’s Market in Carmel is great too — Jenn Aniston buying coldcuts... Clint Eastwood in for a case of Hogsbreath Ale... that kind of stuff. Just remember they are not there to sign autographs — it’s their downtime.
Anyway, so I’m standing behind Leon Panetta, holding a tube of toothpaste, a roll of Tums, a Chapstick, a small bottle of Bayer Aspirin and a red Tootsie Pop.
Mr, Panetta completed his transaction, and lingered just a moment to sort out the contents of his shopping bag. I placed my stuff on the counter. The clerk asked, as all such clerks are born to do: “Will this be all?”
I don’t know why, but my mischievous side bounded forth. “No, I’d like a dollar of my change in quarters, please... and Mr. Panetta’s thoughts on achieving world peace in our lifetime, and possibly my lollypop free of charge.”
Oh, was I flippin’ ASKING FOR IT.
I recall it vividly. Without missing a beat, Mr. Panetta turned, and calmly offered, “Complete peace, globally, will take a great deal of time, patience, and a concerted effort by all the world’s leaders. As for the lollypop... you’re ON YOUR OWN.”
With a trace of a grin on his lips, he casually walked out, his bag neatly folded closed.
Me. And the thenfuture head of Central Intelligence. The Tootsie Pop conference. It happened.
Rob Foster is an independent author and artist who lives somewhere in central California near Sequoia National Forest.