Burning Buildings and a Few Ex-Presidents

I was riding on the “L” the other day when the burned out building that we passed prompted the lady sitting next to me to strike up a conversation. Now, normally when someone says something to me on the train, I just kind of smile and nod it off and go about my business. But, as I happened to be on the train a few months prior at the same time the building in question was in flames, I decided to throw the ol’ two cents in and provide the woman with a brief description of the events as I remembered them: intense heat, black smoke, everyone moving to the front of the train, etc, etc.
Then she told me about her son who was a fireman and how she worried about him but not as much as she worried about her other son who was in he National Guard and quit just before 9/11. She told me that under no circumstances was he allowed to re-enlist in any way, to any military body unless Jimmy Carter died and he would get to carry the casket. I said something about how tough of a gig that would be to get and she told me that when she was engaged to Peter Jennings (yes, THAT Peter Jennings) she met the President of France who introduced her to President Clinton who told her that if Carter died her son would be the man to carry him. This was, of course, all after she was engaged to John Kennedy before he went off to New York to marry “that woman.”
Then I got off the train.