An acquaintance was relating a story that supposedly occurred while Ronald Reagan was the Governor of California and his son, Michael, was attending (military?) school. According to him, Reagan pere was making an appearance at Michael’s school. He was shaking hands with people when Michael approached, and Michael had to remind his dad that he was his son.
I have searched Snopes/Google/SDMB archive, etc., and found nothing to verify this tale. Sounds like BS to me, but I thought I’d throw it out there. Anybody else heard of this incident?
Note to Wise-Acres: Yes, this supposed occurance took place before President Reagan contracted Alzheimers.
In defense of Reagan, I’d like to point out the following things:
Kids’ appearance can change dramatically in only a few months. They grow up so fast.
Michael was at out-of-state prep school, which was presumably a boarding school, which would mean that months could have gone by since his dad had actually laid eyes on him.
His hair could have been totally different the last time Dad saw him. Hairstyles make a big difference in personal appearance. So do clothing styles. If you get used to seeing your son with long hair in a torn t-shirt, and then there he is with a crewcut and wearing a suit and tie, it can look like, literally, a total stranger.
It’s not unknown for busy professional people working their way through a reception line to fail to recognize someone they might be expected to recognize. Their minds are on what’s next on the day’s agenda, not on all the anonymous faces going past.
Isaac Asimov told the same story about himself! He’d given a speech, and was greeting people in the audience, and it took him a few minutes to recognize his daughter. (His daughter laughed, and said to a friend, “See? I told you he wouldn’t recognize me!”)
I’ve heard that Regan was unfortunately suffering the symptoms of his Alzheimer’s disease even during his presidency. He was easily confused, and seemed to be in a daze much of the time. He started confusing the plots of the movies he had starred in with his real life.
According to one book that I read, his handlers found that Reagan responded best to Hollywood-type direction. When preparing Regan for a speech, they would say things like, “In this scene, we want you to…”