In January of 1998 we were vaguely aware of Matt Drudge.
One morning we got in our Saturn and drove down to the 7-11 to pick up a coffee and some Marlboro Lights. We put the radio on Imus and just before the commercials came on we heard the tail end of Charles McChord saying something about Clinton and an intern, we really didn't catch what it was all about.
Around 1 PM we turned the TV on and saw White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry deflecting Lewinsky related questions.
And so it began, the long year of Bill and Monica.
Who wouldn't want that year back?
As noted before 1998 was the worst year of our life. Clinton-Lewinsky was the background to year in which we dropped out of college, endured bouts of unemployment, held a dead end job, and an appendectomy. 'You idiot! It's in the back of the book!' Our fiancee admonished when we asked where the appendix is.
That year saw a cold winter and a really hot summer. We know because we were life guarding, $6:15 an hour folks, ten hour days. We had the 8-6 shift. No one showed up for a couple of hours at least. That summer we burned through the American Heritage series.
The gig paid our half of the rent and the utilities. Back then our idea of the high life was Red Lobster. So we were doing OK. We used the pool's sionaric acid to clean our basement bachelor shower when our fiancee moved in. We still have a chlorine burn on our calf from daily bucket dumps into effluent tank.
For a while our pool was real popular with the 30ish mom set. We were 24, tan, 30 pounds lighter than today, and walked around lifting a fifteen pound dumbbell. We tanned real nice too, turning a nice apricot color. A shirt? We had no need for one. Once we walked passed two moms at the baby pool and heard one of them ask the other, 'Tempted?' Damn right they were tempted.
Younger reader(s) will not be aware that once the Monica story broke official Washington assumed Clinton would have to resign. By the next Monday Clinton made his famous statement, 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms.Lewinsky...' He was lying of course, we all knew he was lying.
We spent the whole year wondering if he was really going to get away with it. He did.
Soon after we got our gig at CNN. The residue of the impeachment was all over the joint.
Those poor bastards still had no idea what Drudge was doing to their industry. Neither did we, and 1999 was a pretty long year too.
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