Meet Me at the Train Station
A Whistle-Stop Campaign is coming to town on Tuesday!
It’s the late 1930’s. Let’s say a young person living in the mountains of North Carolina has dressed up in church clothes on a Tuesday and gone to town. The train depot is decorated with bunting. Bouquets of tall-stemmed gladiolas stand in buckets of water facing the tracks.
This person waits with the crowd, leaning over the edge of the platform, watching for distant puffs of steam and listening for brakes and the whistle that will announce the arrival of the President of the United States.
He’s here! He looks just like his picture.
From the back of the train, Franklin Delano Roosevelt tells the crowd about his plan for the country and for them personally. He calls it the “New Deal”. Afterwards, people will talk about how FDR’s whistle-stop campaign came through town, stopping for water and speeches, and how it left the station in a cloud of excitement.
The young person will remember today as their first day as a grown-up.
Other Presidents have given speeches from the backs of trains, starting with William Henry Harrison in 1836.
But “whistle-stop campaigns” began in 1900 when Teddy Roosevelt traveled through rural America, speaking from the back of a private railcar. He made 480 stops in 23 states and gained 5 states for the Republicans. Each event could take as little as twenty minutes. He was met by hundreds of voters in small towns.
Time rolls on. Train tracks are turning into bike trails in small towns across America, but the romance of a whistle stop lingers.
Our town has repurposed the old train station into a covered platform with a few inside rooms, lots of parking and a well-tended sculpture garden. It’s used for all kinds of events, including political meet-and-greets.
Folks, the great American whistle-stop tradition is alive and well!
Your candidates are coming to town to meet you, their voters, to hear what’s on your minds. They will say, “Here’s how I plan to address these issues when I’m in office.”
This Tuesday, August 16 at 5:00 p.m., come to the Depot on Railroad Avenue. This way when you see the candidates’ names on the ballot this fall, you will know their faces and their ideas. You will do your part in the election cycle of American democracy.
Before I get ready to “meet the train” on Tuesday, I’m going to share a memory with you. When Sam was running for the NC House, I imagined him making a whistle-stop tour of District 113. Below is the drawing that we printed on event announcements that year. What a great tradition! The heart of democracy.
I remember when Harry Truman came to Fargo, North Dakota via train. School started late that day so that students could go. It is great to see how the renovated train depot in Brevard is getting lots of use. And thanks, Deda, for sharing all of your beautiful, delightful artwork with all of us. So multi-talented! Wow!
Always loved this photo of the Roosevelts.