The Presidency

For the first sixteen years of my life, I knew no President of the United States except Franklin Roosevelt. He was elected the year I was born, 1932, and remained President until his death, four terms later.

I do remember the day he died. I was a teenager, completely oblivious to the world of politics. I went down the street to buy myself an Italian hoagie for lunch. (For those who do not come from my corner of the world, a hoagie is probably called a submarine sandwich.) The little old Italian lady in the shop was behind the counter constructing a row of hoagies to fill a telephone order, and sobbing uncontrollably. I asked her what was wrong and between sobs she told me, "He's-a dead! He's-a dead! Ef-a Dee-a Rrrrrr!" I had heard him speak on the radio, and had seen him in the movies (No one I knew had a TV back then.), and I liked him, so I was saddened to hear this news.

I remained pretty much disinterested in politics for a long time. When I was twenty, in 1952, I was dating a boy named Bob. I remember a night after a date when we were sitting in my kitchen drinking coffee. He was very eager for Adlai Stevenson to be elected. Frankly, I could not have cared less, but I enjoyed a good argument, so was coming out as hotly for Dwight Eisenhower. Eventually I tired of the argument and told him, "Well it doesn't really matter. I'm not old enough to vote anyway." Bob nearly dropped his coffee cup and yelled, "You aren't 21?!" He said good-night, and I never saw Bob again. It didn't exactly break my heart. In fact, I was rather amused by the whole incident.

The next year I was old enough to vote. Since my father was a staunch Republican, who thought anyone claiming to be a Democrat was only a step away from treason, I of course registered as a Democrat. I remained a Democrat for many years. My husband was registered Republican. Both of us always voted for the man rather than the party, and we always seemed to agree as to which man that should be. In the election of 1960 I became very much more interested in the political scene, and was very thankful that John Kennedy became our President.

In 1982 I went to work for our local municipality. On the day I started my job there, I also went to the Election Board and switched my registration to Independent. I did not want to be part of the petty - and sometimes not so petty - political nonsense that went on there. I never regretted that decision. Probably missed out on a couple of raises and bonuses, depending who was in office at the time, but I could look at myself in the mirror every morning without flinching. And when the bigwigs wanted a straight answer instead of someone telling them what they thought they wanted to hear, they came to me more than once.


I have never in my life been so aware of the general public being so excited about an up-coming Presidential Inauguration as this one. This time it's different, and it is so exciting! Never have I been so involved emotionally in the election of the President. I think that is true of an amazing number of people. This time, it really mattered, and we all knew it. And we did good!

Barack Obama has before him a truly staggering job. I cannot imagine how anyone can handle it. But you know - I believe he is capable of it. This is a good man! I am sure there will be times when he is all but overwhelmed, and he may stumble a bit now and then. He isn't Superman. But I honestly believe that he will do it, in the end. We have to be supportive, try not to be hyper-critical, but also let him know if he gets off-track and insist that he make good on his promises. It may be that more is expected of this man than any other in our history. But I do believe first, that his intentions are good, and second, that he WILL do it. We have to believe. He may be our last hope after what has gone down in the past eight years.