Friday, October 31, 2008

Voting at 92

No pictures- but a great story...
My grandmother is 92 and lives in Nashville. She had wanted to vote in this election, but isn't driving now. So Jason called yesterday from school to say it was the last day for early voting so we needed to take her. After school, we picked up Jason and headed over to Old Hickory. She was excited to get to vote. Thankfully a friend told me that elderly could go to the front of the voting line. We arrived at the Hermitage Library to find an enormous line. Anne Grace, my grandmother, and I walked right up to the front. I explained she was 92 and here to vote- which brought one woman to cheer, "She's 92 and here to vote!" and everyone started clapping. Bishy (as I call my grandmother) was pleased with this. After this, she got the royal treatment. She signed in and the woman said to her, "What pretty handwriting you have." (which is true, she does have very lovely handwriting and always has) to which Bishy responded, "And you have beautiful teeth." I started laughing and explained to the woman that my grandmother worked as a dental assistant for many, many years. In fact she really just stopped working this last year. The woman working the polls gave us the details that she flossed everyday and Bishy replied, "Well, I can tell." Okay...funny.

Then we moved onto the voting station. Another worker started reading the presidential candidates to Bishy (maybe thinking she couldn't see them) and Bishy said, "You don't need to read any farther. I know who I'm voting for." and pushed the button for Obama. The lady was surprised and laughed. Anne Grace got to push the green button to place the vote (her third time this election). As if this all wasn't enough for the story...Bishy says to the woman, "It's amazing how many people there are here." She explained to us that there polling station had seen 20,000 people over the early voting days. Bishy then asked, "Were most of them voting for Obama?" At this point I am cracking up. The woman answered nicely, "Well, I don't know because I don't really look." but she smiled and said, "But I think many are!"

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