Some wait for glimpse of Obama

BRISTOL – Amber Morris took a half day off work Wednesday for one reason – to catch a glimpse from her front porch of President Barack Obama.

“I think we’ll just see his car,” said Morris, a secretary with Bristol Virginia Public Schools. Her house is across the street from the Kroger grocery store where Obama held a nearly hour-long town hall meeting on health care.

“I’m sure his windows will be up and blocked and everything, and his car will just whoosh right on through, but that will be enough,” Morris said.

Hundreds more people had similar ideas. Sightseers and protesters alike braved heavy morning and mid-afternoon rains to catch a glimpse of the motorcade.

It was in the heavy, late-morning downpour that protester and Abingdon lawyer Strother Smith parked a banner posted on a wagon that he had towed into the grocery store lot. He was angered to learn that the sign could stay, but he and the other protesters and sightseers would be banished to the sloping hill adjacent to the parking lot’s far side. That, Smith argued in the rain to a soaked pair of Secret Service agents, was too far away. The president might not see or hear the protest from that distance.

“As a constitutional lawyer, I’m telling you this is going to violate our freedom of speech,” Smith said.

The emotionless Secret Service agent replied: “I’m just doing my job, sir.”

Police and Secret Service agents had little choice but to stand in the rain, umbrella or not.

Thick rain drops pelted the black suit of one Secret Service agent tasked with blocking the sliver of parking lot directly in front of Kroger.

The electronic ear-piece that snaked from his ear down his collar “didn’t mind” the rain, he said.

“But, I mind,” he added.

Thick, dark rain clouds traded places with sunshine all day. Often, the switch happened with little warning, which is how Teresa Jewell, of Sparta, Ill., found herself waiting for Obama on the porch of Morris, whose home fronts Kroger.

Jewell began the day on the other side of the store with the protesters. Because she had presidential sightseeing and not protesting in mind, Jewell trekked to the store’s other side.

Caught in a sudden downpour, she dashed to the nearest shelter available – Morris’ front porch.

Morris said she didn’t mind the company of anyone seeking shelter as long as there was no protesting going on in her yard.

Jewell liked Morris’ directive. She even grabbed a blank placard that someone left on the porch, and with the magic marker next to it scribbled a welcome sign for Obama.

“This is the best place we could find,” Jewell said, and grinned.

The president’s bodyguards staged a makeshift headquarters inside the vacant Goody’s clothing store adjoining Kroger.

Building owner Fletcher Bright, an Obama fan from Chattanooga, Tenn., said he swapped use of the building for tickets to the town-hall meeting.

After the president’s speech, Bright said it was a good trade.

“I’m pleased with everything he had to say,” Bright said. “Whether he’s going to get [his health care package] through Congress is anybody’s guess.”

The thrill of glimpsing a president’s motorcade didn’t catch on with everybody.

Rex Hall, owner of the Gateway Auto Repair that lined the president’s route, couldn’t wait to see the envoy come and go.

“I hope he’s in and out and I can get my business going again,” Hall said as he leaned against a pickup truck, twiddled his thumbs, and watched the picketers lining Gate City Highway.

Hall must reschedule some appointments simply because clients couldn’t get to the garage during Obama’s visit. Hall’s business had been interrupted since 8 a.m., when police with bomb-sniffing dogs searched the cars on the garage lot.

“That kind of work makes for a bad paycheck,” mechanic James White said. “Especially when you work on commission.”

Obama supporter Mike Blaswell had no idea if he would get to see the man of the day. Blaswell arrived as a local volunteer to help usher reporters and others inside Kroger.

“I get to hear the speech, and that’s the nice thing,” he said soon after arriving slightly before 1 p.m., when all of the volunteers were scheduled to meet outside Goody’s for their marching orders.

He then noted his hopes to get the president’s autograph, and produced a copy of the Nov. 5, 2008, Bristol Herald Courier edition announcing Obama’s election.

An hour after Obama’s 5:30 p.m. departure, an excited Blaswell telephoned his news that his historic newspaper now includes the president’s signature.

Michael L. Owens is a staff writer for the Bristol Herald-Courier.