hillaryclinton

The Hillary Clinton GiftDay Story

During the Summer of 2007, at the time Senator Hillary Clinton was running for President, I read that actor Rob Reiner hosting a 60th birthday party for her. Believing that it would be thoughtful gesture to get her a GiftDay birthday gift, I googled her birthdate: October 26, 1947. The results were a mess: I found that using search engines to find date-associated products is an exercise in frustration. I needed to search not only “October 26, 1947” but also “26 October 1947” and “10/24/47,” among others as well. If I abbreviated the month (i.e. “Oct.”) I obtained different results. There was no standard. Relevance had been thrown out the window; many results had nothing to do with dates at all.

After a good deal of time however, more manual search string tweaking and a search on another browser, however, I managed to find the hint something interesting: a brief mention of a Frank Sinatra song recorded on Hillary’s birthdate. I discovered that at the exact time when then Senator Clinton was born, Sinatra was recording a song at RCA Studios in New York called “Just for Now”.

I next went online and through Amazon found and purchased a mint-condition, original 78 RPM record. When I found a record that could play 78 records and heard the lyrics to the song, I got goose pimples. One particular lyric struck me: “And come what may that certain day will find us somehow.” Since then Senator Clinton was running for President, the lyric was perfect! But I was also aware that I would be attending her birthday party and I believed she should forget about the election for that moment and simply enjoy her party. So I thought she’d appreciate Sinatra singing during another part of the song: “...forget everything else and remember this moment just for now”.

I connected with one of her campaign people, and he became so excited about the gift that I found myself invited to Senator Clinton’s birthday party at Rob Reiner’s house.

When I approached Clinton at the end of the night with the framed record, she was in the middle of a circle of well-wishers and celebrities. When she saw the record, she stopped socializing and focused only on me. She asked me questions about the record, studied the label and talked about her childhood memories of listening to 78s. She mentioned how she loved Sinatra. She was amazed when I told her that I had tracked down the RCA archives confirming that the actual “take” used in the record had been recorded at the exact time and date when she was born.

But the highlight of my night came a little bit later when Clinton approached me as I was leaving. She took me by the arm and leaning close, quietly confided to me that if she won the Presidency she’d hang the framed record in the White House. Driving home from the event, I thought about her reaction to the gift. If such sentiment could be summoned from an inexpensive 78 record by someone having such heavy demands on her time, then meaningful, time-relevant gifts might be equally appreciated by everyone.

To make these types of gifts available to everyone, I created GiftDay.

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