I am too excited about my day of canvassing and no one is home so I decided to vent my exhilaration in a short (but hopefully long enough that I do not incur the wrath of the diary police) diary.
The best part of my day was meeting Emil, born in 1900! That's 108 years old.
I noticed from the walking sheet that my next house was a resident named Emil who was 108 years old. I knocked on the door and sadly no one answered. I placed the Obama hangar on the door knob and preceded to the next house. As I was leaving, I looked back over at Emil's house and noticed that the hangar was gone and the door was opened so I headed back over.
Emil didn't have a lot of time to talk. He was on his way out for his morning walk (with a walker). He had already voted (absentee ballot) for Obama. He first voted in a presidential election in 1924 and had voted for Roosevelt 4 times. Emil most certainly did not look like someone who had been walking the earth for more than a century. He could easily pass for someone in their late 70's. He is quite a petite and handsome white gentleman for 108.
I wanted to stay and spend a few hours talking with Emil, but since he was in a hurry and I was just at the start of my walking list, we shook hands with thank yous and went our opposite ways.
After I finished this street and met up with my canvassing partner, we headed back to my car and caught up with Emil on his walk (he had traveled quite a distance with a walker). I introduced my canvassing partner to Emil and we chit chatted a bit more about the excitement of this election.
Emil's neighborhood was in a subdivision of single floor brick homes probably built in the post WWII era. Mixed racially, probably lower middle class, with lots of Obama yard signs. Actually, I never saw a McCain sign (or canvassers) anywhere today.
The rest of our walksheets were in 2 different large apartment complexes that were filled almost exclusively with poor black adults and families.
I am a white 49 yr old male and my partner was a small and scrappy pearly white 65 yr old female. We were treated like royalty! It was a beautiful day and lots of people were outside. When we first pulled in to the parking lot, all heads turned to our car and I am sure that there were thoughts of skepticism as to why these 2 old white people were in their neighborhood. Once we got out of our cars and our Obama shirts were visible ... people flocked to us in droves. We had lots of assistance locating apartment #'s and got the scoop on who was home, who wasn't, who had voted already, who was voting tomorrow, etc. Between the 2 complexes there was probably over 40 names on the walklists, but I know that we met at least 200 very excited people between the 2 complexes. These people are living in horrid conditions. Both complexes were filled with broken doors & windows, damaged roofs, dead or dying shrubs ... but the people living here were filled with excitement and hope today.
Their lives will not change on Tues. when Obama is elected nor will it change on Jan. 20th when Obama is inaugurated, but today, for the first time in a long time, Obama gives them and all of us hope that our lives will change soon.
On our way back to our homes in Illinois we heard on the radio the sad news about Barack's grandmother. My heart is aching for both Senator Obama and Senator Durbin and their families for their recent losses. Life is so bittersweet.
For Kossacks from the St. Louis area, we were canvassing south of 270 off of Halls Ferry Rd..
Can't wait for my last day of 2008 canvassing tomorrow!
Did you have any great canvassing stories from today?