This is a photo that I came across online a few years back. It is a shot of my grandmother, Frances Perry (Myers), from her yearbook at Potsdam Normal in 1918. It would still be two years before she could cast a vote in this country for any office.
The line written about her in that yearbook was that she was “the girl who always breaks the rules.” I liked that. It confirmed my belief that she was smart and tough. A few years later she married my grandfather, a tough ex-pro wrestler/vaudeville stage manager, who was also a Democratic ward captain in the city of Elmira. He was tasked with getting out the vote for the party in his neighborhoods.
They were big influences on my siblings and me. Their son, my father, carries parts of both of them with him and in recent years he has been heard to say that he wanted to live long enough to see Hillary Clinton elected President of the United States. My dad is not a touchy-feely, liberal feminist kind of guy. He just thinks she is smart and tough.
So today with their blood in my veins, I will be casting my vote for Hillary Clinton. I am pretty sure they would all be pleased and that later this evening my dad sees his wish fulfilled– that a smart and tough lady takes over the reins on this nation.
Get out and vote.
Redtree Times 