As President Donald Trump prepares to speak at Coleman Coliseum this week, Charles Patterson can’t help but think back to the last time a sitting president made history on the same Alabama soil, and then later shared a Big Mac with him.
“I know there is a lot of angst with President Trump coming to campus,” said Patterson, now 63 and a demand manager at PPG Industries in Huntsville. “He is so polarizing. Either you love him or hate him. There is no in-between, it seems. But whether you like him or not, I think the respect of the office alone should make people happy to have a sitting president at the graduate service.”
He added, “For a graduating senior to have a sitting president speak at their commencement service is a memory they should have their entire life.”
Patterson should know. In 1984, at just 23, he found himself eating lunch at a McDonald’s in Northport seated next to President Ronald Reagan.
What began as a routine day on his way to a shift at an auto parts store became, as Patterson puts it, “a very great day in a 23-year-old’s life,” one that he’s “enjoyed talking about for over 40 years.”
Chance encounter
Now, with Trump preparing to speak to spring graduates on Thursday, Patterson finds himself retelling the story of that unforgettable lunch with Reagan. It was October 15, 1984, and Reagan was in the thick of a three-state campaign swing through the South ahead of his final presidential debate with Democratic challenger and former Vice President Walter Mondale.
After delivering a speech to nearly 9,000 people at the University of Alabama’s Memorial Coliseum, the president made an unannounced stop at the McDonald’s off McFarland Boulevard/ U.S. Route 82 in Northport
“I had gone that day to the speech and when it was over, I had to go to work at an auto parts store in Northport,” Patterson said. “I worked to put myself through college. I was on my way to work when I said, ‘Where can I at least watch the motorcade go by?’ There was a McDonald’s on Highway 82. That’s the reason I chose the restaurant that day.”
What happened next was pure chance. Patterson had ordered a Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish, fries and a Dr. Pepper when he saw the motorcade approach. He figured Reagan might wave as he had done moments earlier at a nearby Wendy’s. Instead, a staffer walked through the McDonald’s doors with a startling announcement.
“They announced at the door, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States,’” Patterson recalled. Moments later, Reagan stepped inside, greeted the McDonald’s staff, and asked what he should order. He settled on a Big Mac, large fries and sweet tea. Total cost: $2.46.
Then an aide approached Patterson and asked if he’d be willing to share his table.
“He picked me out of the crowd,” Patterson said.
Media circus
With cameras clicking and reporters scrambling, the president of the United States sat down with Patterson and another customer named Greg Pearson.
“I was absolutely nervous,” Patterson said about the onset of the lunch.
Among the press was ABC’s Sam Donaldson, who questioned Reagan about what appeared to be a pen the president used to sweeten his tea.
“What is that? Medications?” Donaldson asked in the footage, now archived by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
“No, it’s sweetener,” Reagan replied. “It’s my magic pen. You can’t autograph with it, but it sweetens your tea.”
Patterson recalls Donaldson proclaiming that Reagan was using a “powder substance,” which irked Reagan.
The conversation at the table touched on politics and football. Reagan asked Patterson if he was a Republican. Patterson told him he had voted for him in 1980 and had planned to do so again that November. The president also brought up legendary Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, who had died the year before.
But mostly, Patterson remembers Reagan asking about him.
“He made it easy,” Patterson said. “I’ve told several people this over the years, but it was almost like talking to your grandfather.”
Final bites
Patterson said that Reagan seemed to be enjoying his meal. He even remarked how it was the first time he had fast-food since before he was elected as governor of California.
But the president grew testy at one member of his entourage who attempted to whisk him away from his meal early so they could travel to the next stop.
“He would say, ‘let me eat,’” Patterson said. The guy would come back a few minutes later and it aggravated Reagan. He said sternly, ‘I am going to finish this hamburger.’ As soon as he put the last bite of burger in his mouth, here comes that guy again.”
Reagan, as he departed the restaurant, grabbed his fries and tea. He was escorted to the motorcade.
A few minutes later, Patterson walked out of the restaurant while making small talk with then-Republican U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Denton of Alabama.
“He told me, ‘Young man, you did something here today that no one else has ever done,’” Patterson said. “‘You had lunch with a sitting president at a fast-food restaurant.’”
Patterson added, “it’s been done since. Maybe they have all done it since then. But according to Jeremiah Denton, I was the first.”
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Timeless memories
Patterson has visited the McDonald’s a couple of other times since the 1984 lunch. He took his children, when they were younger, to visit the McDonald’s and tell the story about when their dad met the president.
The restaurant has since been torn down and rebuilt. However, there remains a commemorative display of the luncheon that includes a bust of Reagan, a picture of Reagan and Patterson seated next to each other and eating their meal, and an inscription that reads, “After speaking at the University of Alabama on October 15, 1984, President Ronald Reagan stopped to eat at this McDonald’s. He ordered a Big Mac, large fry and sweet tea.”
In recent years, Patterson has gotten to tell the story about his chance lunch with Reagan during retrospective media interviews. He once signed a Reagan campaign button.
In 2019, Patterson participated in a panel talk entitled, “Remembering Ronald Reagan” at the Cherry Blossom festival in the rural Ozark city of Marshfield. There, he was joined by former press secretaries, administration and military officials who were connected to the Reagan presidency and to First Lady Nancy Reagan.
“I was sitting with people who helped him govern,” Patterson said. “I had a hamburger with him. I have had a lot of opportunities to share this story over the last 40 years. That was one of the highlights of my life.”
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