| At the time my friend and I were avid Howard Dean supporters. As we drove into Indianola we stopped to get gas. We were conspicuous in our Howard Dean t-shirts, as were the occupants of a car from Minnesota doing the same.
The Dean campaign arranged for a meeting and staging place at a park shelter near the grounds of the event - publicizing such on their blog and forum. We arrived early and helped some twenty-something campaign types move picnic benches and set up the speaker stacks for the sound system.
It started drizzling.
The campaign twenty-somethings unloaded a pile of boxes and started handing out orange t-shirts emblazoned with the legend "Hey Harkin, these steaks are Dean-licious!" So, we helped. And we kept handing them out. I watched in amazement as the parking lot filled up and all those people (some flying in from great distances) showed up. I estimate the crowd in orange t-shirts under and around the shelter to number 400 to 600. Somone passed the word that Dean supporters from at least a dozen different states were in attendance.
We passed the time conversing with each other and new found friends. In some cases, exchanging e-mail addresses so we could continue the conversation.
Along with a few friends I had raised the money to print 1500 "'No W' - Next regime change, November 2, 2004" bumper stickers. I distributed a large number of them to the crowd.
Howard Dean arrived (with Joe Trippi) and stood up on a picnic table to address the crowd. After he finished speaking he and his entourage started walking to a small bus which would take them to the steak fry. I maneuvered through the crowd and called out, "Mr. Trippi. Mr. Trippi." He turned to look at me as, with a self satisfied grin on my face, I handed him a bumper sticker. He read the bumper sticker, said with a strained look on his face, "Oh, great", turned and walked away. I thought, "Oh, well."
The orange clad host walked the relatively short distance to the grounds of the steak fry. We saw John Kerry go by in a van past our line of orange walking along the highway.
We had opportunites to interact with some candidates on the grounds - and we heard them all speak. Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, John Kerry, John Edwards, Bob Graham, Carol Mosley-Braun, and the Big Dog (Dick Gephardt had been there earlier in the day - Joe Lieberman didn't attend).
There was that sea of orange.
We had a gas. I recommend the experience.
I still have that orange t-shirt. |
