On page 221 of President Nixon: Alone in the White House,
Richard Reeves talks about a time that H.R. Haldeman was waiting for
President Richard Nixon. Nixon had just met with anti-war students at
the Lincoln Memorial in the wee hours of the morning, then Nixon went to
the Capitol building and talked with some cleaning women. Haldeman was
wondering where Nixon was. Eventually, Haldeman and some staff were
waiting for Nixon outside of the Capitol building, but Nixon was not
through with his little adventure. Nixon wanted to get some breakfast
at a place on Connecticut Avenue. When Nixon found that it was closed,
he ate at the Rib Room in the Mayflower Hotel, talking with the
waitresses, whom Reeves says were "flabbergasted".
Apparently,
according to Reeves, this was not the first time that Haldeman had this
sort of experience with Nixon. Reeves states:
"[Haldeman] had
spent many long nights during campaigns walking strange streets looking
for candidate Nixon in strange cities. The candidate would disappear
for hours after midnight and Haldeman usually found him huddled in the
corner booth of a caf[e], drinking coffee alone."
I loved this
passage. I think that Nixon should have been a little more considerate
towards Haldeman, but I can identify with wanting to get out of one's
routine to have a little adventure, to be spontaneous, or maybe even to
be alone.