5 September
When she left early yesterday morning to get her 16 year old volvo (with 400,000 miles on her !) washed … and drove out of the driveway with the trunk wide open…I knew Pat was pretty excited. There had been a flurry of phone calls from headquarters the day before announcing a last minute Obama rally in Lancaster and Herself was to be given a vip pass. As a steadfast volunteer for the local Democratic Party, Pat has been in the trenches for many months…showing up to do anything they have asked…even the smallest, dirtiest jobs…putting her time and energy with a birkenstocks-on-the-ground attitude into being an active citizen in pursuit of real change. No armchair complaining for this grandma ! She IS the change she has been waiting for !
And all along the way…through the long months of this primary season…she has been an ardent, sometimes rabid, supporter of her heros Barack and Michelle.
So, when she came running over to the studio to tell me that she was going to be given special access to this rally…I swear her feet did not touch the ground !
Now it was hot yesterday. I mean well above 90 degrees. And Pat had agreed to carpool and pick up a couple other volunteers so she left here just before noon. They were told that parking would be a nightmare but Fred was watching and led her to the perfect spot. They were ushered to one of the four picnic tables in the park (everyone else had to sit on the lawn) …under a nice shady tree…and told not to move from there. Water was being passed throughout the afternoon but it was still over 4 hours of waiting until Barak appeared. I was watching CNN coverage of O’s speech in York earlier that morning and he looked like the heat was doing a number on him then…but he showed up in Lancaster looking refreshed and envigorated…and they picked up coverage of his arrival in time to see him greeting the crowd and SHAKING PAT’S HAND !!!!!
When my hero finally got home, well after dark, and slowly settled back down to earth… we unloaded the camera and selected a few pics for you to be able to share in the excitement. Though she did not get a photo with her candidate, she’ll settle for the handshake and the memories and is right back out there today spreading the message of hope and change that is so important to us all.
Now go get out your own votes !