We turned left on 8th, my anticipation quickening with our pace. Repair work was slow for the decade of the Great Depression, never steady, never certain.īut because he was often out of work, we were together a lot this was not the case with my mom, who worked as a beautician, leaving me few leisurely days with her like the one I had today with my dad. At five foot eleven he was thin as a rail but just as strong, tempered by years of carrying bulky cash registers from businesses to his car, from his car into our house, then back again. Smith go to Washington or Dorothy to Oz?Īs we rounded the corner, taking a right on 17th, my father reached for my hand and placed it into the strength of his. Who knew what adventures awaited me at the Tower? Would Beau Geste be off to fight in the French Foreign Legion? Would Mr. The Tower Theater was where I went if I wanted to go to other neighborhoods, ones that were years away, like the Old West (if Stagecoach was showing), or light-years away (if it was a Buck Rogers serial). At their heads, sprinklers sprayed giggly kids chased by yappy dogs. Green hoses lay in brown yards like snakes uncoiling to sun themselves. The single-storied stucco houses we passed stood snugly on their lots, painted from a palette of pale colors. The sun was low in the sky, filtering through the banyan trees as my father walked me down the uneven sidewalks of my youth. There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in. At times heart-pounding, at times heartrending, this richly textured memoir of a Secret Service Agent will first move you to the edge of your seat, then to the depths of your soul. You won’t want to miss this insider’s perspective on the Secret Service and a look into the heart of a man who was-and is-ready to sacrifice himself for another.

That journey led him from the halls of the powerful to the streets of the poor in Washington, D.C., to the mountain passes of war-torn El Salvador to help orphans. What motivates a man who is ready at a moment’s notice to step into the path of a bullet? In In the Secret Service, you’ll also follow Jerry’s inner journey. Jerry spent much of his life as a silent eyewitness to history, with a gun at his fingertips. In the Secret Service is an adrenaline-filled ride through the life of the agent who saved Ronald Reagan’s life. In 1981, he was the agent standing next to Ronald Reagan when John Hinckley, Jr., stepped out of the crowd, intent on killing the president.

In the Secret Service by Jerry Parr