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The Slice: Tough to hear your memory is history

Here’s what made Slice reader Peggy Coffey feel old.

Really old.

She was carrying a copy of “All the President’s Men” and mentioned to a young barista that the Watergate scandal was so long ago, she probably didn’t know about it.

“She responded, ‘We studied that in school.’ ”

Today’s Expo ’74 trivia: President Richard Nixon flew to Fairchild Air Force Base when he came here to open the world’s fair.

Can you name the city where that flight originated? It wasn’t Washington, D.C.

(Send me a note or give me a call if you have trouble coming up with the answer.)

I got to thinking about that after receiving an email from Fran Menzel. She was a freshly minted Air Force nurse at the time. Menzel and a friend … well, she can tell it:

“We both had to work the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift at the hospital and decided to go out to the flight line after our shift was over to watch Air Force One and the Nixons arrive on the 4th. I was really impressed with the airplane, all shiny and imposing and all, but was decidedly unimpressed with the president.

“We had gotten there early so we were right in front of the crowd and the president and Mrs. Nixon were really within an arm’s distance of us. The first lady had that ubiquitous smile on her face that never changed the whole time we watched and the president was wearing a load of makeup. It was so obvious to us standing up close — blush, et cetera. We thought it was pretty creepy.”

Today’s Slice question: After asking about aphrodisiac potato salad, I heard from a regular correspondent who requested that I leave his name out of it this time.

“Maybe this would be considered an anti-aphrodisiac or simply mighty good potato salad,” he wrote. “But my wife occasionally says ‘If you’ll leave me alone, I’ll make you potato salad.’

“Perhaps the good/bad side of this is, I’m willing to agree to this!”

No comment. But here’s a question.

What would you be willing to do (or not do, as the case may be) in exchange for someone making you potato salad?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Spay and neuter pets and people who find this topic amusing.

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