(Pretrip encouragement)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6232874I was able to get off work a bit early and drove home. It would have been shorter to head straight for St. Paul, but I have dogs, and had to get home to let them out. As a result, my sister and her daughter were able to drive with me. Traffic was not bad, despite it being rush hour and the bridge being out, and we started to see Obama bumper stickers as we got through Minneapolis.
It was about 5:30 and parking was fine. But as soon as we started looking for the end of the line, we started getting nervous--would we get in.
We walked to the arena and people pointed to the end of a long line of people, we went to the end of that block and were pointed further down the next block. We saw the line winding through a park area but were pointed another direction. We finally got to our spot,and began our wait. It was amazing. People were friendly, offered to share food, smiled, chatted, and wondered together whether we would get in. More and more people were coming, we couldn't see the end of the line.
We were outside of a hotel, and eventually a few folks realized they could see a TV, so we started getting regular reports of CNN's delegate update. "7" "6" "5" was the last one I heard. My sister said that Hubert Humphrey's grandson was a few people behind us. (He was wearing a suit jacket and looked like he could be someone--but we never checked ids)
A pizza place brought samples and then took orders. We could see the part of the line that we would need to reach to be able to hope to see the arena, it wasn't moving. At about 6:30 it seemed to move a little, but then stopped. (For us to reach the point we could see we needed to go around a block, through the park, down the block, and one more block to that point.)
A cheer went up. A young woman wearing a cap and gown was walking to one of the two graduations which were going on in the area. Calls of "Speech" went out, and she smiled and waved. There was some talk about starting "the wave" but then another graduate walked by, and it was easier to cheer the graduates.
Another cheer at the head of the line. We looked for the graduate, but could not see one. Then the lined moved about six feet and we cheered too. It was about 7:15. At first it was in stops and starts, but we were moving. As I walked down that first block, Former Senator Dave Durenburger walked by. No one else seemed to recognize him, but I shook his hand. My sister was impressed. We reached the park, more graduates to cheer, still no indication whether we would get in or not. After we got through the park and down a block, we could see the spot we started at and the line of people at that spot--no end of the line in sight.
We got in at about 8 or 8:15, I forgot to look. We were directed up to the top balcony, and couldn't find a seat, but could see lots of seats on the lower levels. As we looked for a seat we overheard some young folks talking to a security guard who pointed them to a door and said, "If you go out that door and hurry, you might be able to get there." So we followed them. We ended up in the front row of the midlevel balcony facing the podium.
It was amazing. The music played. Everyone was smiling. Kids were laughing. Lots of Obama tshirts (The street venders must have done very well.) Old folks, young folks, white, black, Asian, American Indian, labor, education, college students. About 9 we saw a woman with a big white sign walk in front of the press area, it said, "5 minutes to speeches." And in about 5 minutes the speeches began.
(I have to head to work, but I will be back. If someone can post how to post pictures, I will do so.)
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