R.I.P. Mike Deaver, My Old Neighbor

Shopping Cart Week, III:

Mike Deaver, credited as the master media magician who helped to create the Reagan mystique, died five years ago today.

Mike Deaver, Deputy Chief of Staff to Ronald Reagan

A loyal conservative of whom Nancy Reagan said, "He was the closest of friends to both me and Ronnie in many ways ... he was like a son to Ronnie," Deaver's association with Ronald Reagan dated to California days.  Mike reportedly saved Reagan's life during a flight aboard a campaign plane in 1976, using the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge a peanut stuck in the Gipper's throat.

Shocked, I tell you!

Although I was not a fan of Deaver's at the time he served, and was not impressed by his perjury conviction afterward, he seemed to be a gentle and humble chap when we would run into each other in the SuperFresh grocery store at Yuma and 48th streets, NW - a block from the home where I lived from 1990 to 1998.

Everyone who's Anyone ... at SUPERfresh

As lone cart-pushers, we passed each other in the aisles so many times that, after a few years of this, we took to acknowledging each other with a standard-issue grin-and-nod.  Once, to finally break the ice I said to him, "I was hoping you'd be here!"  He laughed.

The next time we met in the cereal aisle, Mike said to me "I've been expecting you!"  I replied with the question "What time will we be shopping next week?"  Eventually, we introduced ourselves - "Mike" and "Tom," no last names.

We'll go no more a-shopping: Mike is gone, the SuperFresh market is gone, and I am long gone from Washington DC.

Rest In Peace, Public Servant