A Super Day

Like the rest of Delaware, I was at the Obama rally yesterday.  At 6:45 my family woke up after spending the night at The Franklin Institute with our YMCA youth group.  We had a great planetarium show and breakfast.  Then we got on the road and headed home for showers and a change.

At 10:30, we headed to Wilmington to get to the rally.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t early enough to get into the square itself.  My kids were pretty annoyed that they stood in line for an hour, only to be turned away just before we reached the metal detectors.  We ended up making our way between the old courthouse and the square.  My 6 year old started complaining about how hungry she was, so the wife took to the street looking for nourishment with both kids.  I found a few people to interview about why they liked Obama.  I’ll have that video edited tonight.  My son wouldn’t let me do any interviews while he was around, so it was a little less productive than I wanted.

The kids were still in search of food when Obama arrived and I looked for a good vantage point to see him.  I ended up getting a slightly obstructed view.  I started getting some Obama video when I see a grandmother with her 8 year old grand-daughter next to me.  The little girl couldn’t see (for that matter, neither could the grandmother) and the grandmother was fretting about being so close, yet unable to see.  I offered to lift the girl up and put her on my shoulders.  For eight years of age, the girl didn’t miss many meals.  Luckily, she was satisfied with just 5 minutes of shoulder time, and so was I.  The grandmother was so happy the girl was able to see Obama.  We all felt like we were seeing history in the making.

Obama was funny, insightful, sincere and passionate.  You could feel the tectonic shift of American politics as he spoke.  My family returned and I lifted my daughter to watch the speech for a while and my son was tall enough to see over the sea of people.  When the rally was over, we made for the car and were able to get out of town rather quickly and made our way to my in-laws’ place.  We hung with them for an hour or so, before making our way over to Stanley’s Tavern to watch the game.

I had won a radio contest on WSTW in which I got a gift certificate to Al’s sporting goods and a chance to win a car at half-time at a Superbowl party at Stanley’s.  It was a lark, really.  There were 40 people qualified to win the car, but you had to be present to win.  I was told that last year 12 people showed up, this year 25 showed up.  Long story, short (too late, I fear).  I ended up winning a 2 year lease on a new Nissan Altima.  Not really sure about the details yet, but as my daughter screamed “We won a car!”

So, to review, it was a pretty decent day for me.