Bucks
Clinton Wedding Anne & Betsy
Dear Friends,
Good morning. It’s a good thing that our daughters Anne and China left Rhinebeck, New York Saturday morning for Provincetown, Massachusetts instead of carrying out an ambush at the Chelsea Clinton wedding.
Anne and China have a property overlooking the Hudson River on the outskirts of Rhinebeck. They discovered this region while attending Bard College, a few miles north of Rhinebeck. After their graduation, both decided that they’d eventually settle there. Anne is a screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles most of the year. China is a professional photographer. But their hearts have always belonged to the Rhinebeck area.
Anne called Mighty Betsy and confessed their elaborate scheme. Several days before the Clinton wedding, they planned to take their kayak and a case of beer to a friend’s home on the east bank of the Hudson River. The site was a mile downstream of the Clinton nuptials. Because all the roads would be blocked on the wedding day, Anne and China planned to ride their bicycles to the kayak and launch it for a stealth excursion.
“You
wouldn’t have gotten within a mile of the
“Mother, what do you think the beer was for?” Anne replied.
Anne explained that they would pass a beer to every officer who tried to interrupt their mission. Can you imagine…attempted bribery of federal agents?
Anne and China are just like their mother. They obviously remembered the story of MB sneaking into the White House during the Nixon presidency…but that’s a story for another day.
Fortunately, Anne and China decided to get out of town.
Anne and her mother are fearless. I remember them dressing in tiger costumes, infiltrating the Princeton University band and attacking the Princeton tiger at a halftime show during the Penn/Princeton game in 1980. You can understand why Anne is so adventuresome.
Last weekend, I saw a picture of former President Bill Clinton kissing a Rhinebeck older woman. MB reminded me that she received two hugs and kisses from Bill Clinton a few years ago.
Our good friend Richard Moss had taken us to a fancy black tie dinner in New York City. Moss and MB graduated from the Solebury School in New Hope and have served as Trustees for decades. Moss is a baseball lawyer. He represents a stable of impressive baseball stars.
Moss is also a director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Committee. Bill Clinton was the featured speaker at that dinner. During the reception, we had a nice chat with Carolyn Kennedy Slossberg, a close friend of Bill Clinton. MB and the former president’s daughter talked about her book and poetry.
I kept quiet.
The ballroom was filled with more than 1,000 diners and it looked like we were the only four white people there. MB and I were probably the only Republicans.
As most know, MB is not shy. She was not put off by the Monica Lewinsky affair and all the stories of Bill Clinton’s bad behavior. The Mighty One continued to be a Bill Clinton supporter. She was determined to say hello to the former President. As is my custom, I remained in the background and remained silent.
MB marched up to Bill Clinton’s table and tapped him on the shoulder. He stood, put his arms around her and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Alas, I didn’t have my camera with me.
Dancing on air, MB waltzed back to our table and told the women about her encounter. They wanted hugs and kisses too. So MB led five gals back to interrupt Bill Clinton’s dinner. That’s how MB got an encore from the former president.
Personally, I’m not a fan of Bill Clinton. But there’s no arguing about his intellectual capacity. For 45 minutes and without notes, he described the state of the world, generally, and the U.S. specifically. It was a captivating talk.
I’m a birthright Republican. I’m not supposed to be impressed with Democrats. I should not attend a celebration honoring the most loved Democrat since FDR. It was all MB’s fault, of course.
She gets me into the worst pickles. Drat!
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith