With a name like McIntyre and a job at McDonald’s, it’s not hard to figure out how Rep. Mike McIntyre’s (D) high school newspaper came to dub the class president “Big Mac.”

The summer of 1973, when this photo was taken, was a big time for McIntyre. In addition to his job at the new McDonald’s in Lumberton, N.C., he turned 17, was elected student body president and spent a week in D.C., where he heard White House counsel John Dean testify at the Watergate hearings.

That inspired McIntyre, chairman of the Teen Democrats, to consider a career in politics. After graduating from high school in 1974, he returned to Washington to intern for Rep. Charlie Rose (D-N.C.), whom he would eventually succeed in Congress.