this woman’s work

I didn’t think we’d get in, honestly. I didn’t realize the venue was as big as it was and I figured we’d never get in. See, when they said they were holding the rally at a high school stadium, I was picturing the kind of high school stadium where I went to Friday football games with rickety wooden bleachers and a shaky chainlink fence around the field. Apparently high school has changed a lot since I was a kid because this stadium reportedly holds 20,000 people and is sturdy enough that when thousands of people start stamping their feet on the metal benches the edifice doesn’t even shiver.

Kristen made t-shirts (it was Abby’s idea) so we’d all be matchy-matchy with great big Obama symbols on our chest and red and blue stars (the t-shirts were white, natch). We decided to bring the middle kids (Noah, Lena, Liberty and Molly) because the big kid (Jake) had better things to do and we knew the little ones wouldn’t last.*

Kristen and Abby, being much more organized about these things than I am, decided to treat it like tailgating so they packed up a couple of coolers, a big bag of homemade popcorn, two big jugs of ice water and a bag of candy. Oh and homemade chai (Martha Stewart has nothing on Kristen, which if you read her blog you already know). She also wrote Obama 08 on her van, which got us some thumbs up on the freeway.

We got a good parking spot then took our place in line. The kids huddled up under shade trees with their Nintendo DS games and a good helping of the food. We chatted with some folks we know and haven’t seen forever then started making friends with the rest of the people in line with us. Some people came over and took pics of the kids in their matching t-shirts and there was a lot of that spontaneous friend-making that happens in a crowd before an event only better since there was also that team-spirit feeling.

We waited about six hours. We got there at 12:30 and the speeches started at around 6:30. We were inline for about four hours and then the rest of the time we were in the stadium. That sounds awful, right? Hot sun, crowds, uncomfortable seating but it was great. In some ways it was the best part. (Kristen said it felt like a Dead show only without all the drugs.) We chatted with people and laughed and shared out some of the chai. We signed a petition and chewed on ice cubes and Kristen took a ton of pictures. Once we got in the stadium (Noah set off the metal detector become of some hardware in his pants, but he took it in stride) we ate chik-filet and laughed some more with neighbors. We had good seats — about 13 rows up with a view of the whole filled-up stadium. We watched the lines still stretched back to the parking lot and watched the volunteers scramble with a new game plan because they didn’t expect that many people. We saw one of our new line-friends get picked to be up on the stage (he didn’t even have the yellow ticket you needed to get an insider view — he got handed one at random) and felt like one of our “own” got the nod!

Then a huge — I mean HUGE — praying mantis flew into our rows and everyone jumped and scattered while it flew into one woman’s hair and onto another woman’s arm. It landed for a brief second on Noah’s leg then leapt to the woman in front of him, who calmly brushed it off and it flew away over our heads. The section whooped and clapped and the kids were grinning. (Molly said, “My mom’s gonna be so mad she missed it!” because she and Abby were out getting the chik-filet.)

Another one of Noah’s favorite parts was when the first speech started and the bleachers across the field started chanting, “We can’t hear! We can’t hear!” He thought that was great. And he was entranced by the unfortunate drama of some folks having some issues with the heat down on the field. (The field was meant to be a fairly small crowd, I think, but the overflow was huge and it ended up being a pretty daunting throng, at one point surging forward in a way that looked worrisome from our vantage.) The third time it happened Obama was speaking and he threw his water bottle into the crowd for the woman. The stadium hilariously chorused a crushed “oooh!” worthy of tweens watching Zac Efron toss a sweaty shirt towards a lucky few.

When we saw the motorcade come down the highway way out beyond the stadium we got goosebumps and our section cheered. The guy next to me asked what I thought about Palin and we grinned, all giddy with the possibility that this year we might actually win! Abby told the woman behind us that they had dillybars at the concession stand and Kristen clued someone else in on where the secret bathrooms were. Then we got the kids to stand on their benches and chant for one of the free signs. (Noah was horrified and angry at me for embarrassing him but what can I say? I got Lena and Liberty a sign!) Abby had to train the kids when to hold it up during the speeches and we got them to stamp their feet with the rest of the crowd.

We moms cheered until we were hoarse and I caught the kids smiling more than they’re likely to admit. Obama, even with a low-key speech, was terrific and genuine. I love the cadence and rhythem of his voice. Sherrod Brown, already a huge favorite of mine not least because he was smart enough to marry Connie Schultz, was also a big winner.

Afterwards the kids ran around the field to get the wriggles out and then we stopped and watched Obama’s bus drive by. (He waved at us. We swooned.) Then we got to the car and started tailgating out the back again while we waited for traffic to die. A guy offered to buy a pop off of us but Abby said no, because she hadn’t packed extra but we gave him a drink of water for free. Then it turned out our battery was dead and a lovely woman gave us a jump after Molly saved the day and found the jumper cables.

Noah said the speeches were boring and waiting in the stadium was boring. He said the best part was playing his DS in the shade, the praying mantis and stamping his feet. But then he called his friends and a couple of relatives and bragged about his day.

It was a terrific day. It was terrific to be there and see the crowds (my pictures suck but I’ll try to upload a shot of the full stadium later) and it was inspiring to be waiting with so many like-minded but wonderfully diverse (in experience, in age, in race, in income) people and feel like we were all gunning for the same thing. It was especially great having Noah and his friends there and knowing that this would be a story that would matter to them someday in ways they can’t foresee now.

*The husbands made a plan to trade off care of the little girls all day, working in shifts with big brother Jake doing some of the supervising. Madison had a good time and was very proud of herself for staying “all by herself” never mind the team of people there with her. She did fall out of the treehouse and scraped her side during Jake’s shift and reported that “he said something thoughtful,” which was apparently “Come on down” but said, and I quote again, “softly.” Then he gave them some pop. Pop, if you didn’t know, cures all evils.