Need a little levity prior to election day ?  Enjoy a few fun ( m0stly) anecdotes from past elections…………..

I was a freshman at North Georgia College in the fall of 1956.  I came home to Lavonia to vote.  City Hall was located on Jones Street, behind what was then Andrews Jewelers.  As Daddy and I walked down the sidewalk , I said to him that I didn’t know how to vote.  His response , ” Hell, Diane, I just paid the college several hundred dollars for you to take Political Science, and you don’t know how to VOTE !!!  ”

Years before that when Duard Whitlow was running for School Superintendent in Franklin County, he asked several of my friends  and me to stand as close to the polling place as allowed to hand out cards with his name on it and to encourage people to vote for him.  We were young high school students, so we happily stood in sleet and freezing rain all day long.  The irony here :  we were paid a dollar each AND we MISSED a day of school, to politic for the  leader of education in our county.  He won !  (He happened to be Byron’s uncle, but that’s another story ).

In the 60s Byron and I were living in Winder.  His mother was visiting on election day, and she did not drive.  So, I voted in Winder, put her in the car and drove her back to Carnesville———–to cancel my vote.  Those were the days when you simply agreed to disagree.  The significance was that we both voted our conscience, and I would gladly drive her again to cancel my vote.

On a different level, I ran for the Barrow County School Board in the late 60s and lost by 4 votes to a rural preacher, who was a native. At the time pregnant girls were not allowed to continue attending school, but  ” times, they were a’changin’ “, and the School Board had to consider the outdated policy.  It was so upsetting to this gentleman that he resigned.  Sad for him and sad for me.

But my most favorite election story has to do with my Aunt Marie Haley Williams, Lavonia’s historian.  A vote was set for the citizens to decide for or against the sale of beer and wine in the city.  There was a gentleman who felt strongly that the sale of alcohol would be a mistake , and he worked diligently up to voting day to encourage anyone and everyone to vote against it.

When Marie arrived to vote, he was as close to the polling spot as allowed, and he said to her,  ” Now, Miss Marie, when you go into your booth, I want you to ask yourself, ‘ What would my Jesus do ?’ ”  She promptly responded,  ” I know exactly what he did.  He changed the water to wine. ”  She cancelled his vote and the referendum passed.

Just a little balance to Election 2020.  If you have stories, I’d love to hear.

 

 

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