My 19 year old daughter, Jessica, and I went to the Barack Obama rally in Duncanville, Texas this past Wednesday. The rally started at 4:45 with the doors opening at 2:45. We live at the northern most end of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and Duncanville is at the southern most end, a distance of 40 or so miles. We arrived there at 2:40 and the parking lot was full. We ended up parking about three blocks away. The line to get in was three wide and more than two football fields long and was steadily growing. We walked past old and young alike. There were two women with about 15 pre-schoolers, teenagers, young adults, and seniors who looked to be in their 70s. The rally was at Duncanville High School Arena. (Yes, arena. High schools are huge in Texas). After about an hour in the slow moving line and within sight of the metal detectors (yes, metal detectors; it is a man who might become our next president), the building was full and we had to go inside the football stadium that they had set up for overflow (speakers but no view). We were sitting in the first row for about 20 minutes when a secret serviceman told us if we wanted to get a better look that we could move down to the field where they had a barricade set up and that Senator Obama might come over there for a few minutes after the rally.
So Jessica and I went over and stood next to the barricade. Then one of the senator’s staff members came out to look at the crowd and a few minutes later they set up a small platform and microphone, which meant he was coming out there. When they brought the dogs out to sniff the surrounding area there was no doubt. About 20 minutes later his motorcade drove up and the crowd went wild shouting Obama, Obama, Obama. They drove his SUV right next to the doorway and all the news media and cameramen lined up at the door. We figured we would get a glimpse of him going inside (we were about 40-50 yards away), and would have to wait for about a hour until the rally was over. Then about eight secret servicemen and about 15 policemen and all the media started to move in our direction and we knew he was coming over and the crowd got even louder. Then Senator Obama, surrounded by four secret servicemen came out waving. He said with this huge crowd and this nice weather he thought he would come out here first. He spoke for about five minutes, and then started back toward the doors.
Then he said something to the secret servicemen and walked over toward us. The crowd surged and the secret servicemen surrounded him and yelled to the crowd not to push. The next thing I knew was that my daughter and I were shaking hands with the future president of the United States. I know he has to be tired from all the traveling from place to place, but he has the energy and excitement in his eyes.
The funniest thing we saw was when we were leaving and we saw this one woman on the corner with a Hillary sign in a sea of Obama supporters.
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