At the age of 17, Don Stinson accidentally landed a job in the White House during Watergate, 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.  <br> <br>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.​  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's sock.  <br>  <br>And that was just the small stuff. <br> <br>​A funny, fast-paced memoir, Downstairs at the White House is richly decorated with presidents, first ladies, celebrities . . . and events that shook America.  <br> <br>”Stinson's prose is unfailingly clear and (the author’s) tone endearingly self-effacing... he furnishes his own idiosyncratically personal perspective, brimming with tantalizing gossip, character portraiture, and the astute, if green, observations of an inexperienced youth.” - Kirkus Reviews <br> <br> ​