Well, it was worth the four hours driving (round trip) and half tank of gas to hear Bill Clinton yesterday in McMinnville. My sister, niece and I were picked up by the Yamhill County Sheriff, no less (no sirens- personal car) and we parked in the driveway at a friend's house near the high school. The line was loooooong and cheerful. We got to go in through the press door, where our names were checked off the VIP list. Somehow they had left the Sheriff off, but he was in his uniform and armed, so he had no trouble getting in! The gym had one set of bleachers pulled down, and the lucky 'vips' got the pick of the seats, unless they wanted to stand near the podium. Hearing that he was going to be late (no surprise to me after seeing the schedule of talks) we opted to climb up to the top row of bleachers. Fortunately Sydney brought her gameboy. It got a little warm in the building aptly nicknamed "the furnace", and the flames painted on the walls weren't helpful!
Once the masses were let in, the place filled fast. The floor was packed, so they opened up an upper level of bleachers above us. I guessed about 1500 people. I was pretty close, as the paper estimated 1600. We were too high to be reached by the T-shirt tossing Katie, who warmed up the crowd. A campaign guy in a suit came and got Mary, so we figured Bill was getting close. She got to go backstage and be in the handshake line, and took something for me to get autographed. I couldn't believe how long he talked! I figured it would be a 20-30 minute drive by, but he stayed over an hour! The crowd was great. He gave a fantastic speech on behalf of Hillary, and on the importance of electing a Democrat to the presidency in November. Then as quickly as he rolled in, he rolled out...after shaking lots of hands near the podium and signing a few of his books that people brought along. This guy loves crowds. Not me. I was happy up in my perch. I did work my way in a bit through the masses during the handshaking, and got a closer picture. Then he was gone... off to the next stop, even more behind schedule! I'll be he was glad to get to the airport last night.
No comments:
Post a Comment