Coffee Spew

We’re in the midst of basement renovations. Moving boxes out from behind the furnace, my son couldn’t get enough of an unsorted stash of my parents’ photos and memorabilia. He came up with a September 1973 signed thank-you note (boilerplate sentiments typed by a secretary) from then-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. I’d forgotten about the letter. It goes with the inscribed 8×10 photo which has adorned our fireplace mantle for a while now. My father chaired the Kane County Republicans in the 1970s. Agnew was brought in for a fund-raising speech. (Dad is the guy sitting between Agnew and the podium.) Watergate was in the headlines and Agnew was under indictment in his home state of Maryland for graft. The event was held at the county fair grounds in St. Charles. There was a catered meal, a raffle. Some 2,400 attended. Columnist Joel Weisman, covering the speech for the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote “the vice president is not the same controlled, dynamic speaker he was before his personal grand jury problems became public in August.”