Prophetic?

(transcribed from THE ECHO-5, February 8, 1984) When Rep. Lynn Martin made a short speech to the 1,300 or so members of the audience at the Ronald Reagan birthday party in Tampico Monday afternoon, she noted that the president has a special picture he looks at during troubled times. Martin gave the picture to Reagan shorthly before his inauguration on January 20, 1981. She further noted that the president later told her that "I keep that picture in the top drawer of my desk. Some days are better than others and when I get down, I look at that picture. That picture is never leaving my desk drawer." Well, that HAS to be quite an honor for a Tampico resident . . .because he's the guy who TOOK that picture the president keeps in his desk drawer. . . and looks at it in troubled times. Lloyd McElhiiney, who runs the Tampico Elevator, walked out of the elevator one afternoon about 4:00p.m. on election eve, 1980. When he looked down the street, there was a rainbow which appeared to end right above the Main Street building in which Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911. He snapped a picture of it and that picture was later made into postcards. . .and one of those cards was presented to the president by Rep. Martin. "It's quite an honor," said McElhiney, when asked how he felt about having the President of the United States refer to a picture he took when things start going bad. "I'm proud of it and it makes me feel good. I don't know if it's prophetic, but maybe it does mean something." Prophetic or not, none of the world's best known photographers have one of their photographs sitting in the desk drawer of the presidnet, a photograph the president may have even consulted when he made the decision to phase the Marines out of Lebanon. It must be a nice feeling for Lloyd McEhiney, however.