Driving William Donald Schaefer

It seems like everyone who grew up in the Baltimore area or lived here long enough has a story about .

Add Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz to that club.

Kamenetz's Schaefer experience dates to the summer of 1979. Kamenetz was 21. The future political leader of Baltimore County had just graduated from Johns Hopkins and was preparing to enter Schaefer's alma mater, the University of Baltimore School of Law, when he took a job with Schaefer's campaign for a third term as mayor.

"Obviously, it was a great opportunity and I did every political task that needed to be done," Kamenetz said.

Kamenetz, you may remember, also worked as a five years earlier during Venetoulis' county executive campaign. ("I only drove for winners," Kamenetz joked.)

Among Kamenetz's responsibilities was to drive Schaefer around Baltimore.

"It gave me an opportunity to spend time alone with Mayor Schaefer," Kamenetz said.

Kamenetz also wrote speeches for Schaefer—not an easy job for anyone.

"It took me a while to learn how to write for him," Kamenetz said. "I wrote all these speeches that he would just disregard."

Kamenetz said the secret was learning to "really capture his style and what was important to him."

"He didn't wax poetic," he said.

Kamenetz said Schaefer "served as a great role model for me. I've tried to emulate him by being direct and telling it how it is and never forgetting why you do this."

What exactly Schaefer may have taught Kamenetz remains a little bit of a mystery.

"I'm sworn to secrecy," Kamenetz said. "Maybe in 50 years I can talk about it."