4925: October 2008

Yesterday Barack Obama came to West Philadelphia. Ben woke up early and, after fixing himself some "Obama snax," trekked the 7 blocks to 52nd and Locust and waited in line for a gleeful 3 hours to see his hero. I rolled out of bed around noon and headed up to see if I could get in on the action. I decided against waiting in the line, which snaked around 7 blocks , and I took up my position at 52nd and Spruce, a block south of where Obama would be, where I knew I would be able to at least hear him, if not see him. He finally came on around 1:30, but my wait was made quite enjoyable by my elderly companion, who regaled me with stories of being a paratrooper in Alabama, marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. in DC in 1963, and protesting SEPTA.
On my walk up to 52nd, I passed a group of teens cavorting and singing "Nutter is a narc," so I chuckled a little when he came on with Ed Rendell, Chaka Fattah, and Bob Casey to introduce Obama. Ben, however, who was within spitting distance of the stage, informed me that Nutter saved the day by taking it upon himself to fix the sound system. Obama's speech itself was not incredibly inspiring (when he started talking about sweet potato pie my mind started to wander a bit), but the excitement in the air was contagious and we all worked ourselves into a frenzy at the end of his speech.