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‘Best day I’ve had in a long time’

Posted on November 6, 2008November 6, 2008 by Staff

Photo by Kirk Ross. Marilyn Chaplin, a proud member of Generation Obama, takes a call at the Midway Barber Shop. She’s making plans to head up to Washington D.C. for the inauguration.By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Change happened overnight, a fact noticeable throughout the community.

Stories flowed of the night before, of sitting and waiting alone for the results of a historic election or in a crowded club cheering on the calling of each state by the networks like it was a 360 dunk.

It was an exhausted Carrboro populace that trundled into work or down to the coffee shop Wednesday morning, but exhausted was not the word most commonly used. That word was “elated.”

It’s the first thing that came out of Marilyn Chaplin’s mouth when asked how she felt that Barack Obama was now the country’s president-elect.

Chaplin, who was just finishing up with a customer at the Midway Barber Shop, said she was too nervous to watch the returns come in, but the phone rang all night long.

Before heading into work in the shop that once belonged to her father and as of today still sports a poster of the president-elect in a barber chair, Chaplin once again donned her “Generation Obama” shirt replete with assorted buttons. On Wednesday, she was still answering the phone, “Obama Headquarters,” and she and her fiancé, Pearly Jones, were planning a family trip to Washington in January.

“I just want to go and celebrate. I want to be there and be a part of history,” Chaplin said. “I never thought I’d see an African-American become president.”

Next door to the barbershop, at Hair Creations, Brenda Thompson smiled broadly when asked about the election.

“I’m feeling very thrilled. I’m very elated.”

Equally elated, if not more so, is Rebecca Clark, and from the home where she fought and organized for civil rights and helped marshal the power of the ballot, she reported that Wednesday, Nov. 5 was very fine indeed.

“Best day I’ve had in a long time,” she said. She too was nervous and shooed everyone out of the house so she could switch back and forth between channels at will.

Obama’s speech from Grant Park “couldn’t have been no better,” she said, adding that John McCain’s concession was gracious and well done.

The message Clark took from the election was straightforward.

“This is letting us know that we have been lagging for a long time in going to the polls.”

She chalked up the victory to the enthusiasm of young people, especially those just turning 18 this year.

“He got them so energized,” she said of Obama. “They were so motivated.”

That, she added, is what “pulled the plow to this end.”

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