In case you forgot or never knew, Bala Cynwyd native and Lower Merion Class of 1942 graduate, Alexander (Al) Haig, went from being kind of famous to (for at least 15 minutes) very famous on March 30, 1981. That was the day John Hinckley Jr. shot and seriously wounded President Ronald Reagan. On that day, while Reagan lay near death at George Washington University Hospital, Reagan’s Chief of Staff and our local-boy-made-good, Al Haig, told the world he was “in control here.”
Saint Joe’s Prep has Al Haig as a class of ‘42 graduate and he’s listed as such in the Prep Alumni Directory.
I wonder how he managed to have his photo appear in Lower Merion’s 1942 yearbook.
It wasn’t 3/30 but 3/21 when Hinkley and Reagan visited the Hilton. I was there. I also lived across the street from the hospital when a student at GWU. In my archives I have photos of it. Some of us like me remember it the same way we remember Nov 1963
But Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981.
Do you remember the old Amex commercials with the tag line, “i can charge here?” Well the fall after Haig’s gaffe, he went to a Princeton football game and we knew he was coming. The band spoofed the Amex ad, with Haig as the cardholder, (whether in the Hanoi Hilton, or the jungles of Nicaragua, the card is recognized around the world….”, ) and it ended with “I’m in charge here.”