Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories.
Editor’s note: Last week’s column is being republished this week because the above photo was inadvertently omitted.
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During the 1950s, the minimum voting age was 21 years old. So the first year I was eligible to vote in a presidential election was 1956. That was the year President Dwight Eisenhower ran for re-election.
I was really looking foreword to voting for the first time, but on election day, I was sick with some sort of virus and I spent the day in bed. I was disappointed because I really wanted to vote.
Four years later in 1960, I would cast my first presidential ballot. In the weeks leading up to the election, I thought of a professor I had in college, Dr. Herson. He urged all his students not only to vote, but also to do something for our preferred candidates … you know, pass out literature and things like that. It was a way we all could participate in an election campaign.
That 1960 election pitted John F. Kennedy and his VP choice, Lyndon Johnson, against Richard Nixon and his VP selection, Henry Cabot Lodge. Nixon had been Eisenhower’s vice president, and I was an Eisenhower fan. So I planned to vote for Nixon.
In the weeks leading up to the election, I thought about what Professor Herson had told our class about participating in campaigns, and I decided to make a sign for our front yard. There was a lot of traffic on Fifth Street, so it would be a perfect place to put a sign.
I built the sign out of wood scraps from the back of our garage. I wanted to keep the message as simple as possible, so it said, “NIXON-LODGE on Nov. 8.” You can see what the finished sign looked like in the attached photo. (That’s our two-year-old son Dave in the foreground.)
I thought I would probably hear from a few of my friends when they saw the sign. My Democrat friends would needle me about it, and my Republican friends would tell me how great it was. I was right on both scores.
Then one evening while I was watching television, our phone rang. When I answered it, the caller said “I’d like to make a reservation.” I quickly replied, “I believe you have the wrong number,” whereupon the caller said, “Oh, isn’t this the Nixon Lodge?” Then he started laughing. I recognized the voice immediately. It was Jim Haines, the manager of the Sohio gas station next door. We both got a good laugh out of that.
During the next week or two, I did get a few more calls from people who wanted to make a reservation. I told them we were booked solid and had no rooms available except for our “Honeymoon Suite,” and it was really expensive.
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at williamboyd514@gmail.com