I got about this close in 1981, sans stones (Canadian after all) , when Ray-gun visited Ottawa, his first foreign visit I think.
I was at a demo at Parliament Hill with about 2,000 of my closest friends, the limo pulled up (after taking a ‘secret route’ from the airport, to avoid demos en route), Bonzo got out and the full volume jeering started. As Ronnie started to speak a 15 foot high banner with red letters on white background saying ‘STOP ACID RAIN’ rose from the crowd. You literally couldn’t hear him for the booing and heckling because he stopped after about 30 seconds. Then the PM at the time came to the mic and said something to the effect of ‘Come on guys, I don’t get this kind of reception when I go to Washington’, to which someone in the crowd with a bullhorn yelled ‘THAT’S BECAUSE NO ONE THERE KNOWS WHO THE FUCK YOU ARE!’ So they gave up on the speeches.
As the larger demo broke up I wandered by scattered smaller demos including one burning an American flag, and guess what made the evening news? That and the media tripping over themselves to apologize and explain that the demonstrators on parliament Hill spoke for no one in Canada. Yeah, right.
All in all, a memorable day. In a interesting contrast, those days I worked at a restaurant with a guy we used to call ‘John the Fascist Waiter’, who later that same day said he was embarrassed to be a Canadian. I, on the other hand had never been prouder.
I met Trudeau about 3 years later just before he retired and wimped out of asking him about that day. Pity.
PC
P.S. if you think this eulogizing of the worlds most dangerous dullard is bad, wait until Thatcher snuffs it. I'll be recreating Chuck O's salute to Reagan on Maggie's grave. Suspect I'll have to stand in line.
N P Childs
'I'm Mister Bad Example, the stranger in the dirt, I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt'.
-Mr. Bad Example, W Zevon