Average Americans, like me, tend to know little about the White House – or that was me, before Reagan and GHW Bush. Here is what they do not tell you. Serious people change the White House, they change everything.
In 1981, 1982, and 1983, later in 1992 and 1993, I had the unexpected fortune of working in serious White Houses. As we watch the Great Wheel turn, a new president arrives, a few thoughts…
Readers come from all over but indulge me. I was a kid from rural Maine, simple. I went to public school, cut and split wood – how we heated our home. I worked hard, the expectation.
In my spare time, I liked to ski and ice fish. I never heard a big plane go over and knew everyone by first name. In a town of 500, I went to work early (12), got comfortable with it, trusted people, no hurry.
As a high school runner, the only “white shoes” I saw were sneakers. Asked about three-letter agencies, I might have sounded out the letters, and given up. We used guns, no constitutional talk.
Almost no one put signs in their yards, opinions private. We started days with the Pledge of Allegiance, Boy Scouts on Monday nights, and church school on Wednesday afternoons.
That was my world. Mom was a schoolteacher, raising four kids, determined we should learn, get ahead, and go do things, so we worked hard, tried to get our grades up, and did not want to disappoint her.
Fast forward, I finished college – which my father did not – and lightning strikes, a chance to work in the Reagan White House. My eyes were saucers. I knew how to think, read, write, do math, work hard – and was a commonsense conservative, but had no idea that was what I was.
Real Americans, those up early, glad for a job, hard work, grateful for purpose, the real thing populated Reagan’s – and GHW Bush’s – White Houses. Some had white shoes, and “wing tips.” In time, I got black ones. I earned my own money, but they lasted, worn until worn out.
People worked hard back then, although few knew Reagan would be as iconic as he became. We were just grateful to be walking through those gates. I said to myself, “Do not forget this.” I did not.
To be honest, nothing I did was important, but I did everything the way I did it back home, like when cleaning toilets, studding up walls, building houses, mowing lawns, feeding animals – reliably.
And so did the other Reagan and Bush 41 people. They tried to do the right thing, even when wrong, pressure was high. In serious White Houses, people stay late, sometimes all night. The mission matters. It did to them, so it did to me.
I learned that people in those White Houses knew themselves, and the mission and that they had limited time to change the world, so they worked hard. They were not serving themselves.
The honor was huge and made me feel good – having worked back home for WWII vets. The attempt on Reagan’s life impaired James Brady, his press secretary, changed Reagan. His faith was obvious, focus tighter. Reagan insisted Brady retain the title, even as Larry Speakes took over.
A rube in the city does not begin to describe me, stunned but watching the kindness, decency, and integrity of both Ronald Reagan and GHW Bush, both WWII vets, gentlemen, honorable.
One day, seeing guys with skis on their shoulders come through security, as I might be headed for slopes in Maine, I remarked on this to a friend. He just looked at me, the Maine kid.
He looked at me as if crazy. “What?” I said, it was nice to see stuff I grew up with, people who liked skiing, just the way I did, who had skis over a shoulder, in a bag, obviously planning for time later.
“Bobby,” he told me, “those are not skis.” “What?” “Those are snipers, for the White House, EOB, and Treasury … Those are sniper rifles in those bags.” Knock me over with a feather. They looked like ski bags.
On another day, I watched President Reagan help a reporter and saw him treating young people kindly. What did I learn? Honorable people do populate the White House, and do honorable things for us.
Having spent many years there later, as part of investigations, National Security Council meetings, helping Secretary Powell, talking about intelligence, honor is what it is about – for the serious.
Whether you cut wood, teach kids, fix toilets – something I did for five years – or are asked to brief a president, do it right, as you expect others to, only better. These days, also be glad we are about to get serious people back in the White House. We are there again. Thank goodness.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
