Dinner Invite

  

Dinner Invite

Noel Laflin

4-22-22

I watched the first episode of Showtime's The First Lady the other night and admired all of the performances, especially that of Michelle Pfeiffer's portrayal of Betty Ford, which reminds me of the time my boyfriend Jeremy invited the Fords over to dinner at our house some thirty-five years ago.

Now, we didn't know the Fords and the dinner with them never did happen, and I never would have even known about Jeremy's invite had I not had a message waiting for me one Thursday afternoon from Mrs. Ford's executive secretary, saying the former president and first lady were pleased to have had the invite via a TTD (Telephone Teletype Device for the deaf), from Jeremy regarding his upcoming birthday dinner, but that they regretfully had other plans that night and could not attend. She was very nice about it, by the way.

I pondered the message and asked Jeremy about it when he got home later that night.

"So, you invited the Fords to dinner?" I signed.

"Yes," he sheepishly signed back.

"When?"

"Tuesday."

"Why?"

"I like Betty!"

'Well, so do I; she seems like a nice lady; but were you going to tell me about it or just let me be surprised when Secret Service agents showed up on Saturday?"

Silence and a big grin on his face.

"Well, they can't make it. I just had a message from Mrs. Ford's secretary."

"Shit," he signed.

"I agree, but at least now we don't have to clean the house and hide the pot."

"True," he smiled. "But I still haven't heard back from the Reagans ..."