Election Time in the Glaser and Kant households

Election time in the Glaser and Kant households was exciting.

My father -and other kids in the Amalgamated (Amalgamated Clothing Workers' Union Cooperative Development in the northwest Bronx)- put leaflets under the doors of apartments for Democratic and Liberal candidates. Not that they had to remind most people there to vote. But I guess the determined Democratic organizations weren't going to risk the possibility of low turnouts! (As if..haha..the turnouts were usually between 75% and 85%...sometimes higher). My grandmother (father's mother) would go to a special election meeting -and often, party- of the Liberal Party. They would get the phoned in results and tally them on a large board.

My grandfather had what amounted to a ringside seat as a reporter and then editor for various newspapers. They got the results in faster than any other institutions before TV stations started election counting efforts of their own. And even then, they got the results pretty quickly. It was completely chaotic, but inspiring, he said, as they counted the results they got in and put them on boards, and then on linotypes. My grandmother (mother's mother) would either be at a meeting or at home near the radio, but of course would receive calls from my grandfather, as well.

As for me...

Fifteen (1969) - Democratic Party party. Nineteen - Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers' party. (*1974 - Special Party at Brandeis U. when Nixon resigned.)
Twenty-two:  Democratic Party party. Thirty-eight: Large Gala Democratic Party party in Wisconsin as Russ Feingold, for whom I worked, and Bill Clinton were elected.

Forty-six (2000) - When Bush "won" the 2000 election, I felt as if I had lost my soul. I did not participate in anything political for seven years.

Now:  Again embracing my political self in a quiet way...maybe one day, it will be louder :)