Frank's Restaurant in Schulenburg, Texas, famous for its giant enchilada plates, is a favorite with senior citizens all over the Lone Star State. If you're going to Houston on I-10 and you have someone eligible for Medicare in your travel group, you're stopping at Frank's. Period.
Last night I had dinner at Frank's (the people I was with insisted on stopping there) and overheard a conversation between three senior citizens that made me grin.
An elderly couple and their widowed friend, whose late husband had been their choir director, reminisced about their choir's trip to Washington D.C. a few years back. From the context of the conversation, it couldn't have been very long ago. My ears pricked up when one of the ladies said, "Well, not everyone can say they got kicked out of the White House."
They went on to say how difficult it had been to get a White House tour, possible only through the intercession of Kay Bailey Hutchison. The choir requested to sing at the White House, but they were denied. According to the ladies, the atmosphere at the White House had felt "strange" and "weird," with everyone appearing "suspicious."
The then-choir director suddenly spotted a piano and asked if he could play on it. The person guiding the tour said, "All right, but only one song." So, according to the story, the choir members gathered around the piano and started singing.
Right away, Secret Service people swooped down on them and told the singers they had to leave right away because "the family" was home and could hear them. They did not get to finish their tour.
The entire time I was eavesdropping, I expected some kind of swipe at President Obama and thought that nothing in that respect would surprise me. But then the wife of the couple said, "In spite of everything, I'm glad we got to see it before Michelle got in there and africanized the place."
I almost dropped my fork. It wasn't the word "africanized" that got me but the sudden realization that this incident had happened not during the Obama presidency but BEFORE. So the Secret Service people of the beloved W threw a choir FROM TEXAS out of the White House because "the family could hear them."
Wow.