It's been a long time since U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek and former President Clinton met at the Suwanee Swifty store in Tallahassee, Florida.

Clinton, during his 1992 presidential bid, needed to make a stop for deodorant after landing at the airport. Meek, then a state trooper, was assigned to Clinton's detail and accompanied the Arkansas governor.

It's a visit both would remember for a long time -- and something that would solidify a friendship lasting nearly two decades.

"We stopped at the Suwanee Swifty on Lake Bradford Road, where then-Gov. Clinton picked up some underarm deodorant roll-on. And he commenced putting it on in front of the Suwanee Swifty. As the protector of the governor, I didn't want him to go down putting on roll-on, but we bonded through the process,'' Meek recently told reporters.

A year later, Clinton, now president, was in Miami for an event at a hotel, and Meek, still a state trooper, was again part of Clinton's security detail. As the two were walking, the president turned around to Meek and made a comment along the lines of "We're a long ways away from Suwanee Swifty," said Adam Sharon, Meek's campaign communications director.

"I think that really just stood out for him as being a remarkable memory -- that President Clinton in all that he had gone through that year to become president -- remembers a moment in time from a year prior with Kendrick, who was a state trooper at the time," Sharon said.

Meek, 44, now faces a tough battle to become Florida's next senator. The Democrat, first elected to Congress in 2002, faces off against Gov. Charlie Crist, an independent, and Republican Marco Rubio.

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