Milo
|
|
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2014, 07:08:50 am » |
|
After finally working my way onto the radar screen of my County Republican Committee, I got the chance to volunteer at several polling locations on Tuesday. My day went something like this...
I started out at 6:30 am at the municipal building in "Township #1." I set up the table for the day with literature, the most important being the sample ballot showing the Repub. side of the voting board. I also walked about halfway up the hill opposite the front door and parking lot to place a row of candidate signs where people would see them as they drove in and parked. I introduced myself to the Dem. committee member, the constable, the judge, and the poll workers. The constable (a volunteer firefighter) and I hit it off right away, and we spent much of the morning chatting and laughing about anything & everything. About half an hour before the next Repub. committee member came to relieve me, voter was walking from the parking lot towards the door. He looked at me, then he pointed at the Dem. table across from me and said, "Don't you belong over there?" I laughed an replied, "No, I live on this side." He chuckled and went in to vote. Once the door closed behind him, the Dem. committee member asked me, "Was he making assumptions?" I said, "yes." Then he asked, "Aren't you offended?" I answered, "I was prepared for that the minute I signed up for this."
At 11:00 am, I went home to eat something, and David and I went to "Township #2" to vote for ourselves. While I was there I met my local township Repub. committee leader. It turns out that a very prominent Philadelphia conductor grew up out this way, and this woman knew him from childhood. She and I talked about the Philadelphia classical music scene for a while. It turns out that she still makes an annual donation to the Philadelphia Singers in memory of the conductor who died over 20 years ago, in spite of he fact that she rarely goes to any of the concerts.
David drove off to Philly to pick up his new glasses, and I went to my next poll assignment at the local high school, which is located in "Township #3." There I met up with my "boss" for the day. She is a former County Republican Committee chair, and still very much on charge of things. She introduced me to the local township Dem committee chairman and his helpers. Then we settled in at the Repub table. She got a phone call from a Dr. Stokes, who had been working the polling location at "Township #4." Dr. Stokes was calling because he was leaving for a while to eat lunch, and take care of some personal business. So my "boss" sent me over ahead of schedule to relieve him.
When I got to the "Township #4" building (which also houses the public library upstairs) at 1:30 pm, Dr. Stokes had already gone to lunch. There was no table set up outside, but he had left the literature on a bench on the porch of the building. So I grabbed a stack of sample ballots and started handing them out as voters came in. I struck up a conversation with the lady who was there for the Dems. She asked me what I knew about the pipeline project that was slated to come through town. We chatted about it for quite some time, and others who came to vote joined the conversation at various points. At one point, the Dem lady went to her car and got out color maps of the pipeline route through our town.
At around 3:00 pm, a solid, barrel-chested man in his late 40s wearing slacks, a blazer, a button-down collar shirt and no tie started walking up the handicapped ramp towards us. He looked at me and in a large, gregarious voice said, "Milo!! You're here!!!" I replied, "Dr. Stokes...right?" and offered my hand, which he shook once before pulling me into a bro-hug. Now, my "boss" had told me that I would get to meet the mayor of Riegelsville, but she never actually said that Dr. Stokes IS the mayor. The Dr. went on to ask me if I had eaten, or if I needed anything to drink. I declined, and we got to work handing out sample ballots. He was full of questions, and very open when talking about himself and his life. He showed me cellphone video of dolphins swimming alongside his fishing boat this summer. We swapped dirty jokes for bit. He shared the back-stories of several of local citizens who came to vote that afternoon. It turns out that his ancestors came to America from Germany in the 1720s, and founded the town of Wrightstown, PA which is about 45 minutes south of where we are now. He's a great guy, and I look forward to getting involved in future projects with him.
At 7:00 pm, David and I met at the Tavern in town for dinner. We shared our day's adventures as we always do, watched the election returns on the gigantic TV, and headed home at about 9:30.
It was a GREAT day. I can hardly wait for 2016!!
|