Election Day Squash

Since I voted absentee before today, I could take Election Day as a quiet time. I've been knitting and listening to classical music on MSU's WKAR, I cued up an interview of Carlos Santana that I missed on NPR earlier today, and I baked a big garden squash, one of the improved blue hubbards, for lunch. 

The squash, almost seven pounds, presented a splitting quandry. My largest chef's knife barely split the surface. After a few whacks, I stuck the knife soundly into the cucurbit (you can look that word up), raised the knife, and, using two hands, with the squash impaled on the blade, slammed the whole thing on the countertop. (I want all of my Dem friends to know, too, that I did not think bad thoughts about Kentucky senators as I smashed the squash. I was a good person. And I was hungry for squash.)

The squash split with surety. Seeds scooped out, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with Mrs. Dash seasoning, the flesh roasted in a 350 degree oven in less than an hour.

That was lunch, two bowls of yummy mashed squashy goodness, with light butter and fresh cracked pepper. The rest of the massive veggie is frozen, ready for a soup or bisque recipe later this fall. 

I marked the freezer cartons "Election Day Squash" and know that it will be a delight to pull those boxes out of the freezer to make soup some fine day this winter.

And, yes, I saved some of the seeds. 

Harry Truman's Voting Advice

Go to the polls tomorrow and vote your convictions

 -- your hopes -- and your faith in the future.

 If you do that, under God, we can lead the world to freedom and security.

Harry Truman

November 1, 1948

These are words that Harry Truman wrote for his last speech of the 1948 campaign. Truman prepared his remarks for a radio speech to be given on the night before the election. Campaigning was done and he had returned home to Independence, Missouri.

His handwritten notes were transcribed, the speech typed up, and the president must have tossed the notes into a wastebasket. A White House reporter retrieved the notes and, after some years, Harry Truman's discarded speech has ended up at the Truman Library.

I happened upon Mr. Truman's speech when I was doing some reading on the Truman Library's website. I was born in February of 1948, so I would have been almost nine months old at the time of the election. My mom and dad lived in Appleton, Wisconsin where my Dad was serving three small churches and finishing his undergraduate degree at Oshkosh. I have always been interested in the events of 1948, the year of my birth.

My parents, born in the 1920's on dairy farms in eastern Wisconsin, had already experienced the Great Depression and World War II. My older sister came along in 1946 followed by me in 1948. We were born touching the post war years -- baby boomers, we would come to be called -- to parents who knew only FDR as president for most of their years as teenagers and twentysomes.

Truman's election in 1948 was pivotal. His administration would carry out the integration of the armed forces. He would keep the social contract that FDR and many others forged to bring the country out of economic disaster. It is Truman's presidency that spanned the years when manufacturing turned from warplanes and tanks, to cars and refrigerators.

But on that election eve in 1948, Harry Truman's words rang with commitment. In his handwriting, you can even glean a bit of nostalgia, maybe even homesickness, as he arrived home and gave that final speech. Thomas Dewey was seen as the favorite. Harry Truman had come home to vote.

His discarded words, retrieved from history's wastebasket, stand for tomorrow's election. Vote your convictions, your hopes, your faith. Things will work out.

It's good advice.

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Today's blog post is a repeat of a blog post from November 5, 2012, before the last Presidential Election. wje

Artistic License

Ed and I were very focused on our pizzas at suppertime last night. Seated on the terrace of the restaurant, with a spectacular view of sunset over Tucson and the mountains beyond, we became aware of the conversations among ten or so people at the table next to us.

"Sounds like Dems, " I said to Ed as we both could not help but overhear the support for President Obama and the ongoing analysis of the day's political happenings.

We got up to leave, and being a child of Stan (my Dad has always loved talking to people, whether he knows them or not. Right, Dad?), I stopped by their table and said, "Hey, you guys sound like Dems."

Well, they were Democrats and it turned out that the local Democratic club was meeting that night, right there, and that the guest speaker was David Fitzsimmons, editorial cartoonist for the Arizona Daily Star whose work is syndicated in over 700 publications worldwide.

We showed up at the Dem meeting, enjoyed David's talk, complete with cartooning, and got to meet David. We also turned out to be the 99th and 100th persons to join that group of Democrats and David took advantage of that notoriety and called us up front for some fun cartooning.

Here's the cartoon that David drew of us. Yes, he did use a jungle theme for the drawing. Not my fault since David has artistic license. Make that Democratic artistic license!

Thank you to David for the drawing and to Karen Wiley for her photography skills.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Election Day Thangles

I've been at my sewing machine this Election Day. I voted absentee last week; made my contributions; put up signs.

I'm keeping up with Twitter today, doing my Proposal 3 support for renewable energy. I've said my prayers and will say them again.

I guess I'm like a lot of people today, wondering if I could have done more to help get out the word and get out the vote. Like all things that we believe in, we always wish we could have done more.

So, I'm sewing Thangles for a big block quilt that is a big deal. I'm working on 100 little blocks that will go together to make 25 big blocks. Each little block requires that I make four Thangles. Doing the arithmetic means that I will be sewing 400 Thangles (and maybe more) before this quilt is done.

And, as I sew, I'm hoping for a good election -- one that gives us stability and continuity. One that turns the corners that are necessary, but stays the course where we need it. Like my big block quilt, there are a lot of little pieces coming together today.

And tomorrow, there will be more blocks to sew, more pieces to figure out. Seems like quilting and democracy have a lot in common.

Anyway, that's what I think today.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Harry Truman's Voting Advice

Go to the polls tomorrow and vote your convictions

 -- your hopes -- and your faith in the future.

 If you do that, under God, we can lead the world to freedom and security.

Harry Truman

November 1, 1948

These are words that Harry Truman wrote for his last speech of the 1948 campaign. Truman prepared his remarks for a radio speech to be given on the night before the election. Campaigning was done and he had returned home to Independence, Missouri.

His handwritten notes were transcribed, the speech typed up, and the president must have tossed the notes into a wastebasket. A White House reporter retrieved the notes and, after some years, Harry Truman's discarded speech has ended up at the Truman Library.

I happened upon Mr. Truman's speech when I was doing some reading on the Truman Library's website. I was born in February of 1948, so I would have been almost nine months old at the time of the election. My mom and dad lived in Appleton, Wisconsin where my Dad was serving three small churches and finishing his undergraduate degree at Oshkosh. I have always been interested in the events of 1948, the year of my birth.

My parents, born in the 1920's on dairy farms in eastern Wisconsin, had already experienced the Great Depression and World War II. My older sister came along in 1946 followed by me in 1948. We were born touching the post war years -- baby boomers, we would come to be called -- to parents who knew only FDR as president for most of their years as teenagers and twentysomes.

Truman's election in 1948 was pivotal. His administration would carry out the integration of the armed forces. He would keep the social contract that FDR and many others forged to bring the country out of economic disaster. It is Truman's presidency that spanned the years when manufacturing turned from warplanes and tanks, to cars and refrigerators.

But on that election eve in 1948, Harry Truman's words rang with commitment. In his handwriting, you can even glean a bit of nostalgia, maybe even homesickness, as he arrived home and gave that final speech. Thomas Dewey was seen as the favorite. Harry Truman had come home to vote.

His discarded words, retrieved from history's wastebasket, stand for tomorrow's election. Vote your convictions, your hopes, your faith. Things will work out.

It's good advice.

Copyright 2012

Wanda Hayes Eichler



Just Scrappy

It's a favorite of mine, this scrappy quilt. It uses light and dark fabrics in a sixteen patch block that really mixes things up.

The lights and the darks meet in diagonal lines that cross the quilt and make the primary pattern that moves in a straight line through the blocks.

Maybe a quilt like this gives hope to the partisan nature of this fall election. Two opposing sides, with scads of equal pieces, arranged strategically, crossing and completing each other.

We could hope for such a patchwork pattern that works in our national dialogue.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

One Vote

I voted my absentee ballot yesterday. Sitting at my grandmother's dining table in our farmhouse, I finished marking all of the arrows that indicate my choices. Then I followed the directions for refolding and repackaging and mailed the ballot.

In Michigan you can vote absentee if you are over 60 years of age without claiming a hardship, such as being out of town on election day, or inability to get to the polls. Because I have been in Houston for quilt market over election day I've been voting absentee for several years.

I miss the feeling of participation that comes when you show up at a polling place, claim your ballot, and vote. What I do appreciate about early voting is the time spent alone with just me and the ballot. I find that I am more focused. There isn't another voter waiting for a place, so the pressure is off to hurry through the process and be done.

It's an incredible responsibility and a right that I treasure as a citizen. My choices along with the choices of millions of Americans will determine how we govern each other in the days and years ahead.

After all the ads are over, all the mailers have been mailed, all the arguments have been made, it's just one voter and one ballot. That's what counts. One vote. Each and every one vote.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

The Case of the Disappearing Campaign Sign

Our Obama-Biden sign disappeared last Thursday. Displayed at the end of the farm driveway, across from our Terry Brown sign, it was just plain gone when the sun came up.

"Aha! I bet the garbage guys took it, or kids, driving around and looking for something to do." That's what my brain thought up. It was a windy day, however, and I also realized that it could be caught in one of the ditches along Geiger Road, either east or west of the farm.

I hunted for the sign. So did Ed. No sign of the sign.

"Better stop by Dem headquarters in Bad Axe and pick up a few more," Ed said, contemplating that if we lost one sign, then, surely, we would be bound to lose several more before the election.

One thing led to another and when I rolled past Dem headquarters on Monday it was too early for anyone to be staffing the office.

On Monday evening, the sign reappeared. Ed found it -- at his Rotary Club -- and he had to pay the usual Rotary fun-fine to get the sign back.

It seems that a certain Pigeon Rotarian (who resembles the superintendent of the Laker School District) was out walking and spotted the sign. Guessing who the Democrats in the neighborhood might be, this Rotarian nabbed the sign and hauled it into club meeting at noon on Monday. Both Rotarians were fined for their participation in the great sign swap.

Our driveway is once again Obama-ed and Brown-ed.

Let the campaign continue.


Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler