This story came back to me while I was counting votes as an inspector in the recent elections. It annoyed me greatly at the time and it never quite resolved itself on my scorecard of right and wrong.

We met some neighborhood friends at a French restaurant in Washington, DC. The restaurant was famous for having the waiters scooting around from kitchen to table on roller skates. It was a very popular spot in Georgetown and it catered to politicians and lobbyists, who are in great abundance in the nation's capital.

The year was 1972 and the month was late December. As we sat with our neighbors, we talked about our kids and Hicksville soccer in which both couples were deeply immersed. The evening was pleasant up to that point and then it got ugly.

Into the restaurant a party of about nine or 10 arrived and were quickly ushered to the best table. Heads turned and we knew it was a DC celebrity, somebody important.

It was Senator George McGovern just over his huge election in the race for president. He nodded, smiled, sat down and was in the middle of a conversation with his lovely family when my neighbor jumped up and ran over to the McGovern table.

I couldn't believe my eyes! I was mortified! My neighbor placed his arm across the senator's back and was telling him how hard he had worked for him during the campaign.

It was an outright lie! He never did a thing!

McGovern had a forced, politician's smile on his face and was gently and kindly fending off the intruder. After what seemed like a hundred years the neighbor returned to our table with a satisfied grin on his face. He had gone to Washington and had cornered a political celebrity! I wanted to crawl under my table.

My first words to him upon his return were, "Why didn't you just leave the guy alone?" My boorish neighbor was oblivious. He just didn't understand that celebrities were human beings. They have a right to privacy and the right to be left alone when not in the public eye performing their functions.

Senator McGovern had recently suffered a huge defeat and didn't need some wise guy abusing him. It still bothers me, this act of incivility, 31 years later.

Maybe writing about it will ease my pain.