Daddy was a Democrat
With the election coming up soon, I am reminded of the “good ole days”, when Election Day was one of the most exciting days in our lives down on the farm. We loved it, as young as we were. Daddy was into politics. He could talk about his favorite candidate for hours, if anyone was around to listen, and that is pretty much what we did was listen… Mother too. We couldn’t get in a word edgewise!
Election time in South Texas was an exciting time. It was the rural Texas life, the American way. “Politicking” (talking politics and trying to drub up votes) was something my Daddy loved. He loved it almost as much as he loved farming.
Daddy was a Democrat as long as I can remember. He thought Franklin Roosevelt hung the moon and Harry Truman was his kind of man. Now, he liked that man. Truman was tough talking, straight shooting, and would let out a cuss word once in awhile. That was my daddy. I think Daddy only voted Republican once in his life, and that was when he voted for Richard Nixon, something he always regretted.
Politics in Wilson County was always rough and tough during the 30’s and 40’s. Sam Fore, the publisher of the Floresville Chronicle Journal was a big factor in getting so many men elected. He had lots of influence. He helped get Lyndon Johnson elected to the Senate. If Sam Fore and the Floresville Chronicle Journal endorsed a candidate, you could almost bet he would win. Daddy respected Sam Fore, and he trusted his endorsements. If the man was good enough for Sam Fore, it was good enough for Daddy.
Like I said, Daddy loved politics. He only ran for office once in his life and that was for the school board out a Kasper. He won too. He served on the school board for many years. I guess everyone figured he knew what he was talking about since he had eight kids. The voting place was also at the school. Daddy was on the school board in 1948, when they had to hire a new teacher at Kasper. He came home from the board meeting that night, and I heard him telling Mother about how they had interviewed a man from San Antonio for the job. He really liked the man, he said. But, he said, “I don’t know about that wife of his”. “Why”, asked Mother, “What was she like?” Daddy said, “Oh, she’s purty young, she’s just a flip of a girl”. We laughed at that for years, because the board hired that man, Richard Wauson, and his little “flip of a wife” and little boy moved into the house next to the school. The couple became good friends to Mother and Daddy, and they would play cards and dominoes together, and Lessie became my mother’s best friend. That is how I met my husband, Eddie, Richard’s brother. I married him in 1950.
Daddy loved election days in Texas. We all did. It was exciting times. He called it “sitting on the box”. No matter if it was local, school, state, or a national election when that time came, Daddy and Mother both looked forward to that day. Sometimes Mother would work the polls, as they called it. Daddy would even take the day off from farm work. That very seldom happened. He didn’t take time off from farming for anything. It was one of the few times he would leave the fields for a day. It was a chance to see all the neighbors from around, and catch up on all the news from the area around Wilson County.
When Daddy would come home after the polls closed, and they had counted the boxes, it was an exciting time, as we would listen to his news and stories from around the county. Then we would go to bed and he and Mother would sit up late listening to our battery-operated radio, before the REA came through. They would listen on into late in the night. And waited for the results to come in from around the state or country. If Daddy’s man lost, he would be in a bad mood and talk to himself and cuss under his breath for days. If his man won, then he was in a good mood, because he hoped for higher farm prices and help for the farmer.
When I married Eddie, I found out he and his brothers also loved politics, so he fit right into my family. They were also Democrats. It was while we were engaged in 1950, that Eddie and I got into an argument one night about Truman firing McArthur. I was on one side and he was on the other. The argument got so heated, it almost caused us to break our engagement!
I learned one thing that night: politics was a very important part of this man’s life. It was serious business. Just like in my Daddy’s life. Eddie and Daddy would talk politics for hours…with Daddy doing most of the talking and Eddie listening.
I found out how serious my husband was about election days in 1952. We were expecting our first baby. Eddie took me to the hospital on Tuesday morning Nov. 4, 1952 early in the morning. I was in labor all day, and still had not delivered the baby, when it was getting time for the polls to close. He had not gone to vote yet. He began to get nervous, because he wanted to vote for Adlai Stevenson. By 6:00 PM my pains were getting very close together, but he said, “Honey, I am going to go vote. I will be back as soon as I can”. I stared at him, scared, because this was my first baby and I wanted my husband there. I said, “What if the baby comes before you get back?” He said, “I promise I will come back real fast. Nothing will happen till I get back”. He left to go vote!
While he was gone, my contractions got closer and harder. I kept looking at the clock in the labor room. It was after 7:00 and suddenly he walked through the door, grinning, “See? I made it back!” The baby was born around 8:00 and everything was fine. He left the hospital later, as I drifted off to sleep. He needed to go home and listen to the election results. I didn’t care who won. I was glad the birth was over, and I had my baby boy. And I wanted to sleep after over 12 hours of labor.
Next morning Eddie came to the hospital, discouraged. He had bad news. Adlai Stevenson had lost to Dwight Eisenhower. I said, “See, your vote didn’t help that man at all!” I guess I shouldn’t have rubbed it in. It was a sad time for the Zooks and the Wausons as far as Election Day went, but we had something more wonderful to celebrate as far as I was concerned. We had our first baby boy, Eddie Trent Wauson. It was a pretty good year for me, election or no election.
