Saturday: Back to Meyersdale

After hearing Gov. Rendell speak early this afternoon, we took the country roads down to Meyersdale to canvass again.  The countryside is really pretty, although today was our only really gray day.  Naturally we got lost, despite being told by those giving directions along the way that : 

"It's easy."  

"You can't miss it."

However we drove across a high ridge and got right up close to the huge alternative fuel windmills that dot the horizon around here.  Then after being totally lost, our trusty GPS told us to turn left, and we ended up going down a long steep, narrow, unpaved road through corn fields and wilderness.  I kept thinking what if we broke down here miles from nowhere and maybe no cell phone service.... But we got to Meyersdale.

MAPLE SYRUP

I had wanted to pick up some Somerset County maple syrup, so decided we had better look for some before starting our canvassing, as things close early in these parts.  For some reason it is hard to find the stuff nowadays, but I guess when you live here you know where to go, or you can't afford to buy it anyway.  In our driving in the country we were trying to find a maple sugar camp that we had heard about, but got on the wrong roads.

We had also been told there was a little store in Meyersdale, if we turned left at the main intersection, like a circle with a large statue of a soldier in the center.  In heading to where we were told to go, we got confused and ran over and broke a Do Not Enter sign....Don't ask......

Things popped out of the front of our car, so I ran around and picked up the plastic pieces and kicked them back into their slots as best I could.  Cars are made like children's plastic toys these days.  (Redjeb bought some strong Scotch tape later, and we hope not to lose any of the pieces on the way home.)

The sign was another matter.  For some reason the metal pole broke at the base, and the twisted sign was laying on it's side on the road.  Hum...  No one we spoke to knew whom to call or what to do, but all offered to call someone for us.  Very nice people.  A fire truck happened by on it's way from an accident, but the child firemen said it was not their concern, and they didn't know whom to call either.  The man who owned the liquor store on the corner came out with his cell phone.  He had tried to call the State Police, but they said it was not their jurisdiction.  

He and I decided that we shouldn't drive away because I could get in trouble for leaving the scene of an accident, so he called the state police again.  They had no interest in making a note that I had tried to call someone to report what happened.  Apparently there is no local cop???  Eventually it was determined that Penn DOT (Dept. of Transportation) would come by to check this out.

To make us feel better, the liquor store owner had said this was a crazy intersection, and there were accidents there all the time.  We waited in his store, and while there, the owner noticed my Obama pin and asked if I was canvassing.  I admitted such.  So he started telling me how he wasn't sure whom to vote for.  So many of these people down here are angry at the way money is thrown away by the politicians, but nothing to help them in this depressed part of the country. He said he was angered by the large bailout to the banks and the top folks at AIG going off on a junket at the same time they were getting bailed out.  

"Money always seems to come for them but not for us."

Yet this does not translate easily into voting for Obama.  

"They are all alike, and I don't' like any of them," is a refrain I heard often.

 When I mentioned Rendell, the store owner said he didn't like him either--that Rendell gets $185,000 a week for his meals.  I told him I found that hard to believe, but he said he "read it in the paper."  Maybe that is the Governor's expense account, who knows.  Some said Rendell didn't help them at all, but I wonder if it was Rendell or the fact that the State government is pretty much Republican.

Eventually, the Penn DOT guy arrived.  I took off my Obama pin, just in case and hid it in my pocket.  He was a youngish guy (aren't they all) and was very nice.  I tried to explain that we were on our way to buy maple syrup and tried to avoid a car that was coming down a one way street that we thought was the street we were supposed to go up.

The DOT guy just waved me off saying not to worry.  

"I'll just send one of my guys over to put up a new sign.  That's OK don't worry."  

No name, no nuthin' , so we left.  Later we would see a guy there with a yellow truck, and then voila a new sign like nothing had happened.

The store owner looked concerned when I told him the guy said to forget it.  But what to do?  We bought a bottle of wine from him to thank for helping us.

I called Lisa to report that we might not see the number of houses I had hoped to get to today.  When  told her why, she just laughed.  I think she thinks we are this funny older couple....isn't that quaint.

I might add that Meyersdale had more things going on than we had thought during our first visit and we ate dinner at a place called the White House Restaurant, a white building that looked like a Quonset hut hidden down a road on the outer part of town.  The food was really great.  They even had whipped jello, which I haven't had for ages and remember from my days living back there.  Redjeb even liked it, though he finds regular jello a bit funny.  

A family came in and sat at the large table next to us.  Before starting to eat I heard them saying a prayer....yes, we are in Somerset County.   (I remember the days when airplanes flying over Pennsylvania were not allowed to serve alcohol until they passed through our airspace.  You see, we Pennsylvanians have a direct contact with the Almighty and we don't want it interfered with by any drunks or sinners. That may only have been in effect on Sundays, but I don't remember for sure.)

The fellow who owned the restaurant told us where to go for maple syrup at that time, and while telling us his eyes kept going down to my pin and up.  He did not crack a smile, just a steely polite look.  I figured I knew who he was going to vote for, but he wasn't on my list, so I kept my mouth closed.  We got the syrup and it turned out to be from the camp that we had been looking for.  How about that?

Canvassing

At a junction outside Meyersdale, Redjeb planted another Obama/Biden sign on the road amongst some other political signs.  I always fear that he'll get arrested for putting such on state property or get beaten up by some McCain supporter.  But he is fearless.

By the way the young woman with the backwards B scratched on her face, whom I mentioned in a previous blog, admitted, as I suspected, that she had carved the thing on herself.  Surprise, surprise.  I had some details wrong.  She was from Texas, but this happened in Pittsburgh while she was volunteering for McCain.  And naturally she blamed a black man for having done it.  In the olden days some arbitrary black guy would have been hung for this post haste.

But I digress...back to Meyersdale.

Interesting people live here in this working class town.  According to my list there are a number of Nader supporters (from the past I assume).  I find them interesting as you never know what they are going to say when you knock on the door. Independent thinkers they.  People are splitting votes, even the Democrats.  One older guy told me he was voting for Obama, because he didn't like the horrible things McCain was saying in his ads (Yippee!), yet he is supporting a local Republican in a State race.  

Some just don't want to say what they plan to do.  They get marked as REF (refused).  I used to think that was McCain vote for sure, but sometimes if you keep talking they tell you they are going to vote for Obama or really aren't sure.  Some I think they are just private like me.  I don't answer when pollsters phone nor when they knock on my door.  So why am I doing this...cause what else could I do?  And some people actually thank me for stopping by and for working in the campaign.  

One woman sticks in my mind:  She was about 30 something, a little plump.  Her porch was deocrated with everything you could think of for the coming Halloween.  I asked for her husband, as his name was on my list.  She informed me that he was not at home, and that he was away getting ready to be sent to Iraq.  She said she thought he was doing something about voting but didn't know what.  Then she told me:

"I'm not registered.  I've never voted. I haven't been following anything, so don't know what is going on."

I was dumbfounded.  I tried to encourage her to register for the next election, but all I could think of were those poor young folks going off to war, and many of them and their families not having a clue or the where-with-all to understand what it is all about.

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Despite my feeling discouraged some days, this has been a very interesting experience, and you really get to see the diversity in this country.  I'm feeling a bit sad that we have decided to pack it up tomorrow morning and return to NYC.  Redjeb has been a good sport about driving me around and helping me find my houses and helping me keep all the paper work straight that is littering our car.  I don't want to push it with his good spirit. Also my tooth which acted up just as we were coming here, needs to be tended to before it is too late.

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So am back here now in our room drinking some wine, chilling out from another day.  Not sure how much effect we had on the vote, but Lisa (our Obama contact) is actively recruiting people for a big push this coming weekend and election day.  I wish we could be here, but we are going back to NY for our own celebration--I hope.