The oddly true, laugh-out-loud story of a teenager, an Oval Office, and a ringside seat to Watergate.
At the age of 17, Don Stinson accidentally landed a job in the White House during Watergate, at the time the largest political scandal in American history.
A truly insignificant member of the Nixon White House staff, he frequently loitered outside of the Oval Office to watch it unfold. What he saw throughout the White House ran the gamut from the deeply profound to the wildly hilarious. He was also a kid who did the same kind of harebrained things most teenagers do... except on a much bigger stage with much greater embarrassment. Only steps away from the Oval Office, he fought with a foreign head of state for space in a restroom. He devised a shortcut that tripped countless alarms and summoned an agitated band of Secret Service agents. He spilled ice water on Frank Sinatra ....and that was just the small stuff! A funny, fast-paced memoir, Downstairs at the White House is richly decorated with presidents,first ladies, celebrities...and events that shook America. 
"(Downstairs at the White House) is a really cool book.... the story of a kid who kind of 'Forrest Gump's his way into all kinds of interesting situations."
Bradley Jay, WBZ News Radio 1030 - Boston, Massachusetts "Don Stinson is the guy at the party they'll listen to when he says, 'Well, I've got a story to tell!'" Paul Murnane, WCBS Radio - New York, New York |
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"A captivating account of a historically momentous time told from a refreshingly uncommon perspective... Stinson's prose is unfailingly clear and his tone is self- effacing."
Kirkus Review of Books
"A unique style! I call it 'whimsical irony.'"
Dr. John Cook, Good Books Radio,
PBS Radio Stations
"(Don Stinson) may be the only man in the world who can say (his) wingmen were Bob Hope and Charlton Heston!"
John Grayson and Jennifer Blume, 550AM KTRS- St. Louis, Missouri
Kirkus Review of Books
"A unique style! I call it 'whimsical irony.'"
Dr. John Cook, Good Books Radio,
PBS Radio Stations
"(Don Stinson) may be the only man in the world who can say (his) wingmen were Bob Hope and Charlton Heston!"
John Grayson and Jennifer Blume, 550AM KTRS- St. Louis, Missouri
Downstairs at the White House
The Story of a Teenager, an Oval Office, and a Ringside Seat to Watergate
By: Donald M. Stinson
Narrated by: Donald M. Stinson
Length: 9 hours and 50 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Language: English
Publisher: Eastern Harbor Press
The Story of a Teenager, an Oval Office, and a Ringside Seat to Watergate
By: Donald M. Stinson
Narrated by: Donald M. Stinson
Length: 9 hours and 50 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Language: English
Publisher: Eastern Harbor Press
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"Stinson furnishes his own idiosyncratically personal perspective (of Watergate), brimming with extraordinary anecdotes, character portraiture, and the astute, if green, observations of an inexperienced youth."
"The remembrance is filled with remarkable stories—on the last evening of Nixon’s tenure, while the President was composing his resignation speech, Stinson mistakenly attempted to deliver a communication to the Oval Office intended for the flower shop." "He reservedly allows readers to form their own opinions about Nixon and his legacy, choosing to supply his own impressions of the man at the time, movingly conveyed: 'Just listening to him was exhilarating, like punching the accelerator on a Lamborghini.'" |
