I had to prep for this. A folding chair went in the car, just like it would have back in Arizona when the demonstrations were for Grandmothers for Peace. This time there wasn't a car full of pre-made signs to pick from so I needed to prepare my own.
Cardboard! I'd recently broken down a bunch of boxes which had been taking up space in the living room. Metal fasteners had been removed for regular garbage, and side panels separated to fit in the recycle bin. I located the spray can of glossy white paint I'd previously used to touch up dings on the car to prevent rust starting. I had a larger square of plastic to spread across the front porch deck, and set the selected cardboard on it to get sprayed on both sides... three times to get good coverage.
After it dried overnight and was no longer tacky, I used magic marker to lay out the letters and words. They were filled out more than thin lines in order to be visible from passing cars, except for the middle line of text. I'd planned on red but that marker quietly gave up the ghost months before. More trash. Plan B, then: cut the Duck Tape (yes, that's spelled right for the brand) I'd bought weeks before into narrow strips and arrange them over the written letters to fill and contrast. Now the huge middle word said "EPSTEIN" in hot pink, with fattened black letters above and below that to demand "RELEASE" and FILES", surrounding that too-familiar name. Other signs could say what they wanted, have nice formalized professional graphics. I just wanted to remind anybody who read my sign of another reason we were out here messaging to traffic. Just for variety I also wrote on the reverse side in black marker "NO KINGS" and "ANTI FASCIST". Some times you gotta flip the sign.
Amazing once I got to the protest how many other signs mentioned the need to release those files as well.
I was early. That was planned. I wanted to find close parking, which I did. I also wanted to find a spot for my chair near the curb where I could sit and let taller demonstrators stand and fill in behind me. We were quite spread out. Not sparsely, since most of us were 4 or 5 deep, tallest and largest signs in back. There were four large sections of us. A central commercial block divider split the town highway in half. We lined up in the middle, facing traffic both ways, and along both outer (residential) sides. I noticed a woman with her walker there, the kind one can sit on, and decided next to her was a good place. We chatted off and on during the two hours I was there. Others filled in on the other side, mostly standing and walking around, and the crowd came and went through the middle. Some people brought children, others brought dogs on leashes. Attention veered away from the street when our first inflated chicken costumed demonstrator arrived. It happened a second time when a caped super-hero walked in - so much for that flying cape, uh? - and once more when the inflated unicorn showed up. There may have been other costumes, but I spent most of my time facing the street. No green frogs however. Apparently those were long sold out.
Of every dozen vehicles passing by, from cars to large rigs and huge trailers towed behind, probably 9 of them honked and gave friendly waves. Windows were often rolled down to very visible smiles, waves and thumbs-up signs. Many shouted encouragement, cheered, waved their own flags, even applauded if they weren't driving. At least two were noted to have gone around and around circling us, honking loudly and repeatedly. Somebody must have known one of them since I heard a name called out.
Some people did their best to ignore us. One woman really stood out, hugging her steering wheel for dear life as though we might have jumped out into her path to ... What? Hand her a free mini flag? Hitch a ride? Try to get run over? Who could tell what was in her mind besides obvious nervousness. She did leave an impression however. I hope wherever she was bound she made it safely... and was glad to be there instead of at our party.
The third category was the opposition. They'd yell out Trump's name in a friendly (deluded) way. Or mocking us. We saw thumbs down, and middle fingers raised. Loud expletives were mostly drowned out by the high traffic level. Loud engines were revved as if being obnoxious would change our opinions of anything except whether we ever wanted to get acquainted with those individuals. Some draped large Trump flags or banners over their trucks, circling us repeatedly in case we missed them the first 18 times. (When I left 4 of them were pulled over further down the road in their own mini demonstration. Very mini. At this point I figure our group was somewhere well over 300 people, nicely crowding the small space we had and the outer sidewalks. I'd be interested in an actual count, though people were always moving in and out and back.
A stoplight paused traffic passing periodically, which helped when one blind demonstrator had to be escorted safely across to where the bulk of us were. The pauses also gave us chances to chat, share stories of other demonstrations, commiserate about the upcoming ending of SNAP or rise in health insurance rates. It wasn't all politics of course. Fall colors had decorated the world overnight. A particularly spectacular orange maple tree had gaps between leaves allowing peeks of blue sky above and blue lake below. What a day to forget the camera! As we were discussing leaves, another person pointed out how skewed up the seasons were this year. Across the street, below that magnificent maple, a couple clumps of purple lilac bushes were back in full bloom! That usually happens once, near Mother's Day, not again shortly before Halloween! Apparently the person pointing them out had noticed other oddities recently. I tried to listen but her words got drowned out by traffic and honking again.When next I looked she had moved.
But the chicken was back! And now talking to the Unicorn!
Maybe they were also wondering where those huge Soros checks were, eh?
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