"Former President George W. Bush once went on an awkward blind date with the daughter of then-President Richard Nixon."

"During dinner, I reached for some butter, knocked over a glass, and watched in horror as the stain of red wine crept across the table. Then I fired up a cigarette, prompting a polite suggestion from Tricia that I not smoke."

Aw, that's not so bad. Maybe I need to buy the book. Here. The story is that Bush's father hosted a dinner honoring the commander of Apollo 8, which had flown around the moon in December 1968, and invited young Bush, to mix with the various Washington people. Old Bush had an "ulterior motive": "I also invited Tricia Nixon. I thought it might be fun for you to take her to the party."

Bush was "briefly speechless":

"I’m going to have to get back to you on that," I said.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about flying to Washington for a blind date with the President’s oldest daughter. I mentioned the invite to several of my flight school buddies. They didn’t believe me. Only a fifty-dollar wager would quiet their needling. I called Dad back.

'Count me in,' I said.

On the appointed evening, I pulled up to the White House gate in my parents’ purple Gremlin, which was outfitted with Levi’s jean seat covers. A White House usher met me at the Diplomatic Reception Entrance and took me upstairs. I asked if the President was there. The usher said that he and Mrs. Nixon were traveling.

I awkwardly sat on the couches overlooking the Rose Garden and awaited my date’s arrival. Eventually Tricia emerged, and I introduced myself. We went downstairs and climbed into a white Lincoln Town Car. As we hit the seats, one of the Secret Service agents in the front swiveled his head and said, "Good evening, Miss Nixon."

Off we went to the Alibi Club , where we were seated at a round oak table. Being a swashbuckling pilot, I had taken to drink. During dinner, I reached for some butter, knocked over a glass, and watched in horror as the stain of red wine crept across the table. Then I fired up a cigarette, prompting a polite suggestion from Tricia that I not smoke. The date came to an end when she asked me to take her back to the White House immediately after dinner. When I returned to the party, my father was standing around chatting with a few friends.

“How’d it go, son?” he asked.

Before I could answer, one of his friends leaned in and whispered, “Get any?” I smiled.

“Not even close.”

So, he got drunk! And his parents had a purple Gremlin with Levi's jean seat covers. That's odd.

Anyway, Tricia went on to get married in 1971, and in 1976, George Bush met Laura and married her. 10 years after that Laura got George Bush to stop drinking. Tricia, like George, has never divorced.

ADDED: I originally had December 1968 as the date of the party, but astute commenters pointed out that Nixon did not become President until January 1969. The only date in the book  is December 1968, which, as the post now reflects, was the date of the Apollo trip to the moon. The Gremlin with the Levi's seats is — according to the Jalopnik piece "The Ten Strangest Special Edition Cars" — from the "early 1970s," and since Tricia got married on June 12, 1971, if Bush and Jalopnik have their facts straight, the party took place sometime in or just after 1970, when Bush was 24.

But did Bush get the facts right? Was this a real date or just 2 young people meeting and socializing as friends? I suspect Bush didn't give the date of the party because it was so close to the date of her wedding that it wouldn't make sense to call it a "date." You'd think he'd have fact checkers to nix the purple Gremlin. It's a nice detail, and maybe that's the way he remembered it, but this isn't one of those memoirs where the author is taking artistic license. He's writing for history, and he tells us so in the first paragraph of the book, where he talks about the historian David McCullough, whose daughter told him:

"You should know that one of my father’s great regrets in studying John Adams is there was no serious account of him by his son John Quincy Adams."

She knew, of course, my connection to John Quincy: We are the only sons of Presidents who have served as Presidents ourselves. "For history’s sake," she said, "I think you should write a book about your father."

Maybe someone will interview Tricia about that date, if she remembers it. I'd like a description of what George Bush was really like back then. It was 1970(ish) and he drove a purple Gremlin with Levi's jean seat covers, which must have been the car his parents bought for him, and it just screams "hippie." How long was his hair? Did he have a stereotypical hippie demeanor? What did he talk about? So he smoked and she expressed her displeasure. What was the rest of the scene like? I'm picturing something like Dustin Hoffman's character in "The Graduate," under pressure from his parents, taking Elaine out and deliberately showing her a bad time.