"HELLO BALTIMORE" - Barack Obama comes to "Baldamore"

(Photo Courtesy of BaltimoreSun.com)
Although I couldn't make it down to Obama's speech downtown at the War Memorial Building Plaza, I did enjoy watching it with my family and sipping slowly on a cup of coffee and just discussing Obama's journey up to this point. I remember when Obama first started his campaign; my grandmother had so much doubt. However, I could always tell that she was pulling for him in her own way. You see, my grandmother's memory has begun to fade, and she short-term memory basically doesn't exist. However, my grandmother could always remember who Obama was when he appeared on television.

I would ask, "Mommas, who's running for president?" "Obama," she would answer. Or I would ask, "Mommas, who's that man on the television and what is he doing?" "Oh Steph you know that's Obama. He's trying to be president right?" she would answer.

Come election day this past fall, it was very difficult to even get her out the door. She didn't feel like it, she was tired, and blunty proclaimed "The Nigga ain't gonna win anyway," but again, I knew that she still held on to a small piece of hope for him; eventually she began to get dressed. I comed her hair as she held J, the youngest of her great-grandchildren, and asked her if she really thought he couldn't win. She only shrugged and tickled J's neck. My grandmother is not very emotional, so I wasn't expecting to get much out her. I wanted her to talk about how much the world has changed since the first time she voted. I wanted her to be as excited as I was about voting that day, to be as proud as I was.

Well, that day, this past fall, I shuttered her out the door and into my little Yaris and we drove down to the fire station so that she and my mother could vote. I had already stood in a line to vote for about 2.5 hours earlier that morning. However, in my grandmother's small community, we went right into the polling facility, I assisted my grandmother, and she voted. Although she never talked much about it, I remember going home later that day and called her sister, Aunt Marg (pronouced "Mawg"). She asked her if she had voted, and told her that she "Of course I voted for Obama!" That small exclamation was enough to let me know that she was indeed gitty as I was about the entire election.
Later that evening, after he had won, I woke her and said "He won Mommas."
"What? Who is this? Stephanie?" she asked.
"Yes it's me."
"Girl do you know how late it is?"
"He won mommas; he won!" I shouted, probably too loudly. "Barack Obama, he's going to be the President."
"What?" She whispered, and then there was a brief moment of silence.
"Mommas?"
"Oh my God," she said, and hung up the phone.
I don't know what she did after that, and in my mind I picture her sitting on the edge of her bed, in a well-worn cotton night gown thinking. She may have turned on the news, or simply have laid back down and eventually fell asleep. The next day, I had to keep reminding her that he had won, but as soon as the news was "transferred" to her long-term memory she would always smile when his face flashed on that screen and say "He won, didn't he?"
"Yes Mommas, he did. He's our next President."
"He sure does have a pleasant face."



Thanks for stopping through Baltimore more President-elect Obama!!! Read more about Obama's historic Whistle-stop Tour at Cnn.com.