
{"id":3850,"date":"2008-11-06T07:59:45","date_gmt":"2008-11-06T15:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=3850"},"modified":"2008-11-06T08:00:40","modified_gmt":"2008-11-06T16:00:40","slug":"best-day-ive-had-in-a-long-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/11\/06\/best-day-ive-had-in-a-long-time\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Best day I&#8217;ve had in a long time&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/midway3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/midway3-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Kirk Ross. Marilyn Chaplin, a proud member of Generation Obama, takes a call at the Midway Barber Shop. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s making plans to head up to Washington D.C. for the inauguration.\" title=\"midway3\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" align=\"left\" size-medium wp-image-3851\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/midway3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/midway3.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><strong>By Kirk Ross<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Change happened overnight, a fact noticeable throughout the community.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153elated.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first thing that came out of Marilyn Chaplin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mouth when asked how she felt that Barack Obama was now the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s president-elect.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Generation Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u009d shirt replete with assorted buttons. On Wednesday, she was still answering the phone, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Obama Headquarters,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and she and her fianc\u00c3\u00a9, Pearly Jones, were planning a family trip to Washington in January.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I just want to go and celebrate. I want to be there and be a part of history,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Chaplin said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I never thought I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d see an African-American become president.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Next door to the barbershop, at Hair Creations, Brenda Thompson smiled broadly when asked about the election.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m feeling very thrilled. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m very elated.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Best day I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had in a long time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. She too was nervous and shooed everyone out of the house so she could switch back and forth between channels at will.<\/p>\n<p>Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech from Grant Park \u00e2\u20ac\u0153couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been no better,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, adding that John McCain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concession was gracious and well done.<\/p>\n<p>The message Clark took from the election was straightforward.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is letting us know that we have been lagging for a long time in going to the polls.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>She chalked up the victory to the enthusiasm of young people, especially those just turning 18 this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He got them so energized,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said of Obama. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They were so motivated.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>That, she added, is what \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pulled the plow to this end.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3850"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3853,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3850\/revisions\/3853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}