Fish

  Sometime around an election year, Representative Jim Clyburn holds a Fish Fry to introduce the Democratic candidates running for office.  In 2019, it was for the candidates running for President of the United States.  The free get together is for candidates to mingle with the voters in an informal setting.  Of course, I went that year.  After all, I am a political junkie.  I needed my fix.  I should also point out that I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican.  I vote for the person, not the party.  

 It was a hot and humid day, which is very typical for South Carolina.  It was being held at the EdVenture Children's Museum in Columbia.  A lot of people turned out for the event, and there was a long line to get into the venue.  I had brought my water, but I started to feel a little sick to my stomach.  I recognized the symptoms of heat sickness.  I saw an ambulance nearby and walked over to it.  I asked for help.  They took me inside to their truck, where it was cool.  They gave me some Gatorade, and it helped a lot.  They wanted to transport me to the hospital, but I said no.  I take some depression medication that causes me to become overheated.  I got stabilized and headed on back to the venue.

 I got back in line, and they were passing out water for the people.  I took a couple of bottles and drank them.  I felt so much better.  The lines split off in different directions for the fish.  By the time I got inside a building, they ran out of fish.  I wasn't pleased.  They said that more would be coming, but they had not anticipated this large of a crowd.  I didn't want to wait, so I walked outside and ran into some national media people.  Joy Reid from MSNBC smiled at me.  I smiled back.  I saw Major Garrett from CBS interviewing Clyburn.  That was cool.  

 While I was walking around, I came upon some booths for the candidates.  I saw Elizabeth Warren with some of her volunteers.  She looked shorter in person.  She liked to hug a lot.  I saw one volunteer for Jaime Harrison, who was running for the Senate race against Lindsey Graham.  One volunteer?  Jaime didn't have a chance.  I then had an epiphany.  As a political strategist for a lot of years, I knew a lot about campaigns and how to win.  It was pretty obvious that Joe Biden was the frontrunner for the nomination.  I walked over to the Biden booth and started talking to his campaign staff.  I floated my idea.  What if Joe picked Kamala Harris for his running mate?  It seemed like a crazy idea, but I was thinking that she was from California, so she could help in the West geographically.  She was a fighter, so she could be strong in a debate.  She was a woman, so she could help with the Hillary voters.  And, she was multi-racial, so she could be good to appeal to many segments of our country.  The Biden staffers told me that they liked my idea, and that they would approach Biden with my idea.  I had met Biden some 10 years earlier, and I felt he would consider my idea.  I then walked over to the Harris booth and approached my idea with her staffers.  They weren't too keen on it.  They told me that they were in the campaign to win.  I told them that she could win with being on the ticket.  They yelled at me to go away.  I asked them for a Kamala t-shirt, and they said no.  

 I left the Fish Fry without eating any fish.  I left before the candidates spoke to the crowd, as many were running very late.  I did see Bill de Blasio's car roll into the parking lot.  I waved at him, and he waved back.  As for the Biden/Harris ticket, I seemed to have planted a seed that night.  A year later, they were on the ballot together.  Success or blame depends on your political persuasion.  By the way, Trump should have dropped Pence for VP in 2020.  I would have gone with Nikki Haley, but that's another strategy for another day.

Apples

  One of our Senior church trips was to Justus Farms outside of Hendersonville, NC in the mountains.  I went twice with them, but I didn't go a third time because of a conflict.  Justus is an apple farm, although they have other things too.

 When we got there, they told us that we could pick our own apples off of the trees or come inside to their barn/store and buy them already picked.  The latter seemed more in line with smartness.  Back when I was little, my parents loved to go to mountain stores and pickup Apple Butter and Cider.  That was one of those things that I inherited.  Justus had a great variety of things to buy that were made on their farm.  

 They also had trails on the farm that one could walk.  One trail was to a pond with ducks.  I love nature.  I had a nice chat with the ducks and took pictures of them and the mountains.  I have often said that I would like to retire to the mountains, if I won the lottery.  Maybe one day.  

 I hiked back to the store and bought my stuff.  Before leaving the first trip up there, I felt I needed to use the restroom.  They had porta johns.  It was rather confusing on how to use them, as they were made for #1 & #2 separately.  They then had a place to wash your hands.  That was confusing, too.  Those things need to come with directions.  My second trip there I was hip to how things worked.  I explained to first-timers how to use both things.  People thought I was so smart.  Practice makes perfect.

 On our first trip back, we stopped at Jack in the Box for lunch.  I had not eaten at one of those since I was in Fort Worth.  It was right next to the seminary, and I ate there often.  This new one was quite different than those in Texas, but the food was just as good.  Before our second trip back, we ate before we left.  My half-gallon of apple juice broke open and spilled out inside our bus.  My backpack was ruined, as was someone's purse sitting in front of me.  Apple juice gets sticky, in case you didn't know that.  

Amtrak

  Our bus advocacy group got national attention from our trip to Atlanta, so we were invited to attend a national meeting in Washington, DC with other groups around the country and Canada to share success stories.  There were two of us going:  Charles and me.  He was a fellow advocate who was a transit geek.  He knew everything about buses and trains, and he was the incoming president of the MTRA.  The national group wanted us to fly into DC, but Charles wanted to go by Amtrak.  I agreed, as it would be cheaper.

 I had not ridden in a train for many years.  Probably not since our eventful train ride from Lucerne to Paris in 1973.  That's another story from days gone by.  You can read about that in a previous post.  There is an Amtrak station in Columbia, but the scheduled pickup is around 4am, so we decided to catch another train in Florence, SC which was due to arrive around 10pm.  It made more sense.  We went in Charles's truck to Florence.  The station was pretty small, and we found out that the train would be late.  It got there around 11:30pm.  Charles got the window seat, and I was on the aisle.  There wasn't much legroom for me, and I couldn't sleep.  Charles slept like a baby.  

 We got to Union Station in Washington just before rush hour.  As we were eating breakfast in a restaurant in the station, the rush of federal workers came through the station.  I smiled at one woman hurrying to work.  She smiled back.  I hope I gave her a moment in her busy day.  After breakfast, we took a few pictures of the station and the outside.  It was a very cold day.  We caught a local train to a local bus station to head out to our meeting area which was in Silver Spring, MD.

 Charles had studied the connections ahead of time, so I just followed him.  One thing we found out that you needed a Metro Card to board the bus.  It was $10, but it was worth it.  I hadn't been to Silver Spring since 1964.  My parents and I had stayed in a motel there, and that is where I had lost Teddy in the covers.  Teddy was my teddy bear.  We were best friends.  Apparently, a maid had found Teddy and took him home with her.  I thought about Teddy on this trip and hoped he had a good home.

 We arrived at the site for our meeting, which also had rooms to sleep.  It was an all-inclusive place that specialized in union work.  Being a right-to-work state, we didn't have unionized riders, but some states did.  We checked in and went to our rooms.  I collapsed on the bed.  Our first meeting was that night.  There was one other group from SC at the meeting, and they were from Charleston.  We made good contacts from Nashville and Washington.  We promised to keep in touch, but we never did.  When I went back to my room that night, I saw a picture on a wall of some freedom riders from the early 60's.  One of those pictured was my cousin John David Maguire.  I knew he had been a freedom rider with Dr. King.  I had my camera with me, but of course I didn't take a picture of him.  I did take pictures of ducks and geese outside my room.

 The next morning, we had another meeting.  One of the founders of the Black Lives Matter group spoke.  I followed her outside to thank her for her group, but she ignored me.  I had a lot to talk with her about, but I just went back inside.  The meeting ended that afternoon, and we headed back to Union Station to catch a train back to Florence.  The train left at around 6:30pm.  We had not been able to do any sightseeing other than seeing the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument from the train.  The ride back was more interesting.  In our car was the Stockton Girls Lacrosse team from NJ.  They were heading to a game in GA, I think.  Across from me was a former Maryland Men's Basketball head coach, who was going to Hilton Head to play golf with a friend.  He couldn't drive due to a DUI and suspended driver's license.  Charles and I had dinner on the train.  Just hamburgers and chips.  We weren't able to go to the dining car with our seats.  Charles slept going back.  I couldn't, but I enjoyed watching movies on a girl's laptop.  We got back to Florence early in the morning.  I slept in the truck going back to Columbia.  It was a short trip but very nice.  I want to do another Amtrak trip, but I want a sleeper car, so I can eat in the dining room.  What's a few extra dollars?

 

Soul

  In 2018, the Comet wanted to produce a commercial for local TV.  They hired a company out of Dallas to make it.  That company had done hundreds of local and national ads around the country, and their reputation was the best.  They wrote lyrics and music to a song called "Catch the Comet" and hired a professional singer and dancer to be the lead in the commercial.  He pre-recorded the song to sing on the bus, but the dancing was live.  It was a little tricky for him to dance in a narrow aisle on the bus.

 I signed up to be in the commercial, as did the current president of the Midlands Transit Riders Association.  They also cast some people from the University and the community.  Everyone sat at the back of the bus, and the camera equipment was at the front of the bus.  I was given a newspaper to "read", while the bus was rolling down the street.  I usually get carsick, if I read in a moving vehicle, so I didn't actually read the paper.  I just stared at the top of the page.  They also gave me a pair of red suspenders to wear.  I had not worn suspenders since I was about 3 years old, and I think those were already attached to my pants.  This pair was too small for me.  I attached them to the front of my pants, but the back wouldn't reach.  Every time that I stood up, the back would act like a rubber band and hit me in the head.  As I have said before, modesty is not an option in the Theatre.  The other MTRA member on set was a woman named Marsha.  During one shot outside, I had to walk, and the back would be seen.  Marsha took the suspenders and shoved them down the back of my pants.  I felt like I was strangling, but she and I had a moment.  

 We went to several locations around the city to film us riding the bus.  When we would get to a spot, the director would cue the singer and listen to the song.  It was catchy at first.  It got kind of old during the lengthy shoot.  My part was to look at the paper, and then watch out of the corner of my eye for the guy dancing down the aisle.  When he got to my row, I looked up from the paper and stared at him like he was crazy.  I was sitting by the window which made for a better stare.  I really wasn't acting much.  We did several takes of this scene, because it had to be timed down to the second.  The song only ran for 30 seconds.

 They fed us lunch at Jimmy John's, and then we were back on the bus for more locations.  We went down to the State House at a bus stop.  The scene was for us to all be waiting for the bus.  I was standing next to a woman, who was looking at her phone.  I was told to look over her shoulder at what she was looking at.  I felt like a stalker.  Then, the bus pulled up for the next shot.  We were to board the bus while dancing.  Somebody asked the director how he wanted us to dance, and he said, "Like Soul Train".  The younger actors didn't know what that meant.  Unfortunately, us older ones knew what he meant.  So, we formed a line to board the bus and danced.  Some looked like ducks on a hot plate.  When I got on the bus, I looked into the camera and mouthed "Wow".  The cameraman liked my animation, but the director didn't.  It was cut out of the final product.  

 We then went to our last stop of the day.  It was at a Mexican restaurant on Main and Lady streets.  They had outdoor seating.  The plan was to put the lead actor at an outside table and wait for a girl to come join him for lunch.  She was a university student that was pulled from the riders.  She just had to look cute, and she fit the bill.  The rest of us had to get off the bus quickly and move in opposite directions.  We only had 30 seconds to do this, while the music was playing.  Take after take after take.  The timing had to be perfect.  I was toward the middle of the line getting off of the bus, and I was walking fast.  The people at the end of the line were almost running to make the time.  

 The commercial came out a few months later and was shown on TV.  I was in almost all of the scenes.  You can see it on YouTube by searching for "Catch the Comet commercial 2018".  Look for the young guy in a hat in the picture.  The actual video runs 33 seconds.  I had a fun time making the commercial.  Just like Soul Train.