Collecting a President and a Chicken!
I couldn't begin to tell you when I began to pay attention to politics, but I vividly remember falling in love with The Three Stooges at an early age. Slapstick comedy at its finest, until I saw The San Diego Chicken(also known as "The Chicken" and "The Famous Chicken") on TV for the first time!
I was 10 when I became obsessed with the sport of baseball. I was reading box scores from my dads morning newspaper, and loved reading the backs of baseball cards, not only for their stats, but sometimes some oddball trivia.
My family lived in Arkansas from 1979-1981 and they had a minor league team called the Arkansas Travelers, then the Double A team for the St. Louis Cardinals. My dad and I began to go to a number of these games each summer. I can remember going to one game where the public address announcer stated an upcoming guest to the ballpark would be none other than The San Diego Chicken. Going to that game became the most must see event in my 10 year old brain.
Finally, the day had arrived. I was going to see The San Diego Chicken!!!! The first thing I remember about that day is that it was HOT!! My dad and I get to our seats, pretty decent ones at that, and The Chicken begins his shenanigans, I'm laughing at the most sophomoric bits, but hey, he knew his audience! Then I saw something that seemed out of place.
It was either the 2nd or 3rd inning when I see a group of 4-5 men walking to their seats a couple of rows in front of us, nothing abnormal there except they were all wearing suits, in that heat, I thought they were crazy! My dad leans over to me and asks me if I know who the one in the middle is, I had NO idea, looked like a regular 'old man' in my little kid mindset. He tells me that is Governor Clinton. That meant absolutely nothing to 10 year old me. My dad then explains that Governor Clinton has aspirations to be President of the United States of America one day and that it might be a cool autograph to have, insinuating I need to make my way down a couple of rows and get that signature!
It took all the courage I could muster to approach a man, in the middle of the row, flanked by other guys wearing suits. I managed to wiggle my way through and simply asked Mr. Clinton if he'd sign my scorecard, he was very gracious and asked my name, and personalized my autograph. That was that, for now.
Later in the game, the public address announcer stated that The Famous Chicken would be signing autographs after the game near the right field exit. Now THAT is what I'm talking about! The game ends and we head towards the concourse and end up getting in the back of the line, that was wrapped all the way around near the 3rd base side of the concourse. My dad exhibited the most patience I truly think I ever saw him display, as it took almost an hour to get in front of this human poultry!
Finally, it's my turn. I put the scorecard in front of him, and he points at Governor Clinton's signature, using no words, essentially asking "who signed here?" I had to look back at my dad to make certain I remembered his name correctly(and who he was) and The Chicken feigned a belly laugh and proceeded to scratch "Chicken" out right next to Mr. Clinton's autograph. As an aside, for years, I thought the autograph read "Cluck", not kidding! Look at it again, outside of the dot over the "i", it reads "Cluck".
As I grew up and watched Governor Clinton become President Clinton, I realized two things, the first was my dad was right about it being a cool autograph to have, secondly, that the definition of "irony" lives on this piece of paper. If you can put political leanings aside, and put your satire hat on, you have one person who was paid to make a donkey(see what I did there?) out of himself for laughs and then you have the other one, who's who?
I ripped my first pack of cards at 6 years old and pulled a 1977 Topps Tony Dorsett rookie, a huge bonus in that I was a Cowboys fan. I then began to build team sets of my favorite teams. As I grew older, the nuances of collecting and beginning to invest engulfed me. As a sports junkie, cards became a natural conduit to feed my passion for collecting and investing in the stars I saw on TV and read about in box scores. While in high school, I began to set up at card shows and reinvest profits into more cards, for both the PC and additional inventory. Fast forward to the present day, I'd like to think I have one of the biggest Mizzou alumni collections in the world, collecting across any sport where I can find a Mizzou alum on cardboard(not always an easy task to find). I could never get any of my 3 daughters to share the hobby with me, but as a new "Pops", I can't wait to share the hobby with my grandson, he just doesn't know it yet!