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Midterm Memories Come Haunting
A look at a midterm election past through the eyes of a very longtime voter
(About this photo: I just couldn't resist. Took it with my Kodak box camera when the Eisenhower train (that’s an Ike poster in the background) came through beautiful downtown Ashland, VA. The photo lab people, who were impressed with my historic snapshot, said they could make a higher resolution scan but sadly it involved a great deal of time and money, and the photo lab people still aren’t magicians.)
(But my friend Nick Henderson IS a magician. He spotted my story, and took time out of his very busy day to “play” with the photo. Couldn’t resist sharing THIS.)
My very first election was the midterms of 1950. To be honest, which I seldom was about my age in those days, I was not quite old enough to vote. My first presidential ballot would go to Adlai Stevenson in his unsuccessful battle against Dwight Eisenhower two years later.
But those midterms more than 70 years ago were ferociously fought on my college campus, where almost everybody except a few freshmen — I was a lofty junior! — was registered to vote, and arguments…
