I suppose a lot of people (well, some people) have been wondering what Woodstock Churchlady thinks about the last election. I know I have. I did my best to keep up; I watched The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live religiously, although I did not make it a sacred ritual or duty.
But mostly, I was reminded of the
campaigns I had worked on: that of a friend who was running for
Congress (She lost.), or my first campaign, of another friend who ran
for the State Legislature. (He's still there.) And then there was
another state legislator who had done so much for the District that
they named the new community center after him, but he was indicted
for using State computers for his campaign. (He was found guilty,
but a lot of people had voted for him anyway. They changed the name of the community center, though.)
I knocked on doors, handed out
leaflets, wore the buttons and tee shirts. I ate the chicken and
blocks of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream at the
political dinners, with the free pastel mints on the tables and the cash
bars.
I really got emotionally
involved when Walter Mondale ran for president with
Geraldine Ferraro as vice president. I woke up on Election Day
feeling like it was Christmas Eve and spent the day working on the
campaign of my legislator friend, going door to door to remind people
to vote (most of them weren't home) and sitting around listening to
war stories of past campaigns and eating hoagies and potato chips provided by the
candidate.
He won, but everyone else my friends
and I supported lost. We were devastated and for awhile, nothing
seemed “right”, as if “the times were out of joint.” But The
Holidays arrived, and who had time to be upset? And then the next
election season came around.
A lot of people may think the
reminiscing about old battles is a waste of time when there is so
much to be done. Others may say that they are getting too old for
that stuff.
Whatever.
