MORE ON AND ON... June (Part 118b)

MORE ON AND ON... June (Part 118b)

The School Board election was scheduled for the following Tuesday. Up to the prior weekend it had been very quiet with Jon being the only on to do any electioneering. The incumbent hadn’t put out any flyers, posters or signs and those of us in Jon’s “camp” were feeling quite good about his chances... until that Saturday morning. I got an early phone call from Rob, Jon’s brother. The incumbent had waited until after 6pm the night before and then started a telephone blitz. He and his followers were saying that if Jon was elected taxes would go up and that in his twelve years on the Board taxes had only gone up three times. The message had been short and to the point. Ginger was out delivering milk while Jon had taken up a position in front of the post office to try and talk with as many people as he could. I suggested that the core group meet at Rob’s house to come up with a counter strategy.

The best we could agree on was to go to all our friends and try to get them out canvassing their neighbors. It was not what I wanted to spend my Saturday doing. I agreed to take all the houses from where I lived all the way into town. Being new to the neighborhood I didn’t know many of the people which made me really uncomfortable. I found it was far easier to talk with people who had kids in school. Those that didn’t just shut the door in my face. I found myself on the street where Elle had left the stroller when it broke down. Seeing the house that had had the panties on the wash line brightened my outlook somewhat. However, there were no panties on the line. What I did see was a very pretty girl hanging up sheets. I entered the gate and asked her if her mother was in. She pointed to the back door but I really wanted to take a closer look at her. She looked to be about 15 or so, thin with dirty blonde hair done in a pony tail. The shorts she was wearing were a very pale blue and as she bent over to gather another sheet from the wash basket I not only got a VPL but a quick peek at her white panties. As I knocked on the screen door I had to take a deep breath.

The lady who answered was the same one I’d seen the night I picked up the stroller. It was easy to see that the girl in the yard had gleaned her good looks from the mother. I introduced myself and gave her my “pitch”. What I was “selling” was that changes were drastically needed at the school. Text books were outdated and the classrooms were becoming over crowded. The only thing she asked was if Jon was elected would the taxes go up. I told her “No”, that it would take a majority of the Board to have that happen. By then the girl had finished and come inside. As she put the basket down I got another peek.

That was the highlight of my journey. The core group gathered at Jon and Ginger’s house that afternoon to assess the situation. Based upon the feedback we collected it didn’t look good. We all agreed that the incumbent had blindsided us and that with only two days there wasn’t much we could do except to "sell" Jon to anyone we came in contact with.

Elle got called in to teach both of the last two days of the school year. She told me that the teachers were 100% behind Jon. However, the tactics used by the incumbent were dirty and untrue and the subject of higher taxes (even then) was touchy. The polls were open from 4pm to 8pm and the core group was there in full force. I was surprised at how many people showed up. The 1960 census said there were 1100 adults in town and it seemed like they all showed up. It was about 9:30pm when the word came down that Jon had won by less than 20 votes. The core group went wild. Elle had taken the kids to her mother’s so she was also there to hear the news.

Jon had invited the core group to his house afterwards, regardless of winning or losing. By the time we got there it was around 10:30pm. Because the next day was a workday for me, we didn’t stay too long. Having the kids with Elle’s mother meant Elle would be a lot more “liberal” when we got home and I was looking forward to that. As I remember it, I got a good night “reward” as well as some “morning delight”. The next day Elle heard that the party went on until about 3am and that some never made it home. Hearing that, I was glad I’d left when I did.

Jon was so pleased with the results of the election that he wanted to have a more formal party and arranged for the use of the town park on Sunday afternoon to have a bar-b-que for everyone. I had mixed emotions about going but we did. The park was on the water but it wasn’t really warm enough for swimming in mid June so everybody showed up in casual clothes. Over the course of the afternoon about 30 people showed up. That was good in that Elle and I got to meet some more local people. One of them was my brother’s best friend. Elle and I both vaguely knew him from back before we went off to college. He was over 300 pounds and went by the name of “Big B”. We got to talking and I found out he was a salesman for a boating supply company. I took a chance and asked him about a trailer for the Sunfish I’d bought. He gave me the name and address of someone who, if I used his name, would sell me one at cost. That made my day, at least up to that point.

Some of the women were feeling “happy” and were trying to do a dance. The guys were egging them on. I went over to watch and it was pretty funny. They were trying to do a kick line like the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall did. The operative word was “trying”. There were four of them and they couldn’t coordinate their kicks. It didn’t help that they ranged in height from about 5’10“ down to 5’4”. In any case one of them fell and that pulled all of them down. Ginger, as usual, was wearing a skirt and when she fell her legs went up in the air... and I got an extended view of her panties as she lay there on the ground, laughing. With that, Elle decided it was time to go get the kids.

To be continued...