The Campaign & Life on Wed

Just watching some TV at the end of the day.  There are so many more McCain ads here than in NYC.  I try not to notice.

Our day:

This morning we met Pat Tokar-Ikes, who is the Chairman ( woman) of the Somerset County Commissioners and an Obama supporter.  Her office is across the street from our B&B.  She knew from my old high school friend Pat that we were coming.  She was sorry that we weren't staying though the election, which would be fun, but we had the "romantic" idea that we wanted to cast our votes in person for this election, so will be leaving before then.  She told us that the governor is coming on Sat to speak in the VFW--so we'll be there!

On the way to our canvassing we stopped at the lower end (pronounced "lour end") of Jerome for tacos at the Village Inn, a local bar.  The only customer there, Dan Cortez, happened to be from the family that owned, of all things, Moonlight Park, my old swimming hole, where we were yesterday. He told me that he lives there now in one of the houses up the road from the old park.  His family bought it from the Krings, who owned it in my time.  Although he was a bit younger than me and we didn't know each other before, he and I reminisced about our old high school teachers:  Mr. Grenninger, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Fuller, etc.

The bar used to be Machaci's ('scuse the spelling).  I was never allowed to go there.  I wasn't a drinker and during my youth that part of town had all the bars, and my mother said it was "rough"--not good.  That's probably why I love old working class bars now.  In my mother's early years there, there used to be fist fights every weekend night with people being taken down to the hospital in Johnstown.  Someone once asked her why a nice young woman liked her lived in Jerome...but times have changed.

The bar's owner, Miriam, had been one of my mother's first grade students.  We went to the bar for a late lunch because my friend Pat had said they had great tacos.  Have you ever had an Italian taco?  Whatever they were they were very good and less than $2.00 each.  In fact the special of the day was $1.25.  I love these prices.   

Dan, the customer, told us that in the late afternoon people start coming in for take-out, and it gets very crowded there, and depending on the day they sell between 200-400 tacos.  That is unbelievable given the rural area and not very dense population.

A take-out customer came in Terry Lappi while we were there.  He was also one of my mother's first grade students.  (These are people who look like they are in their 40s now).  His uncle was Reno Lappi, the husband of my first baby sitter (when I was just born), Verna Horwat Lappi.  I was in touch with Verna and her family until her death a few years ago.

CAMPAIGNING

The weather has been very cooperative.  A few scattered showers today, but mostly sunny--but a cold wind so I needed Redjeb's following me in the car, so I could jump in and out to get warm.

In Holsopple:

--A woman in her 40s stepped outside onto the porch and told me she was supporting Obama. She's on disability for MS and has two children. She's very worried about health care. She'd never voted before until two years ago when a friend ran for office.  She's very worried about her future.

At another house, I went onto the porch that was all filled with junk, and as I looked around I realized that there were a lot of large political yard signs scattered about, including one for McCain.  So I silently tip-toed down the steps.  As I was leaving the small yard, I noticed a young woman getting into a car in the driveway.  I went over to her and apologized for coming there, and explained that I'd seen the sign after I'd knocked.

"Oh, my dad threw those signs there.  My mother would never vote for McCain.  I'm not sure she'll vote for Obama, but certainly not for McCain."

At which point she insisted on getting out of the car to go into the house to get her mother to speak to me.  It seems that her father had "moved up the hill" and she was living there with her mother. But her mother did not want to speak to me.  "She's not feeling well," I was told when the daughter emerged from the sad house.  

Not giving up I tried to reach out to the young woman.  She told me she was registered to vote but wasn't going to vote. Why not?  Because she didn't like the way the two candidates said bad things about each other.  But when I tried to engage her in some dialog, she moved away from me and went to her car.  I pleaded with her to vote in Nov, but I'm not sure this sad, beaten down young woman will do so.  Maybe she'll think about our meeting.

The day ended outside of Davidsville in the relatively new (since my time) development on the way to Tire Hill. This looks like a Stepford wives community....so well manicured and all the houses with beautiful doors from Lowes.

Some responses were:

--A 40-ish year old woman answered the door and said she had not made up her mind, but that her husband was for Obama. He yelled from the background that he was working on her. I was pleased though that she wanted detailed information from me. So I gave her my handouts on: women's issues, taxes, and health care. When I said I guess you're not interested in veteran's issues, she said, "Oh, yes I am. My daughter's in the service." So I gave her that handout too.   You never know.

--A man in his late 50s said he's been a Democrat all his life and even worked actively for Murtha. But he doesn't like either of the candidates and doesn't plan to make up his mind till he's in the voting booth. I find this amazing. When I told him I thought it important that the Democrats take over, he agreed. 

When I told him that a Republican President would veto a lot of the bills from Congress that we want passed, he said:  "Now that's a good point." 

I hope that he thinks about this.

At the last house we visited, a young man answered.

I said very softly: "Are you Mr. [whatever]?"

He answered, "I'm one of them."

So I said I was volunteering for the Obama campaign, at which point he yelled over his shoulder:  "Dad, do you want to talk to someone about Obama?"

A gruff voice from an older man came out of stage left:

"That Communist Obama...Hell no!!  Get off my property right now. Get off!!"

I rolled my eyes at the son, and you better believe it--I got out of there and decided to call it a day.