January 26
by Janine Stephenson
We went out again today. I’m wearing
more comfortable shoes. Not boots and definitely not heels. The sun bounced off
the snow and nearly blinded us. Mrs. Stoutmiller took us to the five and dime
so we could get sunglasses.
But we made great progress. Today, we
concentrated on listening to people instead of just talking to them. The idea
is to try and figure out what people think. When we get back to the car, Mrs.
Stoutmiller asks us a bunch of questions about what the people said and records
our answers. This gives Craig a better idea about where people stand.
We met an older man who made
furniture. He tried listening to us but he didn’t have his hearing aid in his
ear. So we were really forced to listen to him. He told us all about World War
I and let me tell you, it wasn’t interesting.
Another woman invited us in for tea.
She was a Republican and she argued with Becca so much that I thought it was
time for us to go. She was just crazy and angry. When we got into the car, we
told Mrs. Stoutmiller about it. We’re really not supposed to visit Republicans,
so that caused us to question our readouts.
But that was the only bad experience.
The rest of the people were happy to see us and even if some of them were vague
about where they stood, they listened carefully to what we said. I think the
thing that surprised us the most was how many people were angry at President
Johnson. And how many people were just angry, period.
