Friday, January 6, 2012

Last and First Signatures

It's been a bit of a struggle to maintain steam on the recall front during the holidays, especially with the amount of traveling we've had for three separate family Christmas celebrations. When my husband and I were traveling to my parents' house for the third and final celebration on New Year's Eve, we stopped at our usual truck stop in Clark County. It's the only place I've found on the road where I can buy Sprecher's ginger ale. As we were checking out, the cashier noticed my button that says "Walker Recall: Sign Here." She told me she liked my button and asked if I had the sheets for her to sign. I did, but I asked her if she'd get in trouble for signing at work. She told me she wouldn't, and since no one was behind me in line, my last signature of 2011 came from my favorite truck stop in Wisconsin.

I decided that Sunday's snow combined with an early Packer game made it a poor day to collect signatures and opted to go out Monday instead. With a high of 22˚ and winds gusting from 20-30 miles per hour, it wasn't the best of outings. I started out on Koehler near Walgreens again, but when no one stopped and the wind kept causing trouble with my signing station, I tried around the corner again at the abandoned gas station. While setting up my ironing board on the sidewalk, I noticed that no one had bothered to remove the snow and ice. I ended up with five people stopping to sign. One guy had stopped to wash his car and only realized after pulling in that the car wash was closed, so he decided to sign instead. Another guy almost accidentally drove over the sidewalk on his way out, but I waved my arms in time for him to realize that there wasn't a driveway on that end of the lot. The fourth person was a godsend of a young woman who told me she really believed in what I was doing and had brought me handwarmers before signing my petition. I opened the first packet gladly and got the iron pellets warming. I wish I could have stayed out for longer afterward than I did, though. Since I only had used them an hour, I'd planned to see if any of the people from the homeless shelter who hang out at the library wanted to enjoy the rest of their up to ten hours of heat, but the library was closed, so no one was there. I used the warmers to thaw my feet out later, though.

When I got back to the office, I learned belatedly that other people have been chased away from the abandoned BP as of late because Kwik Trip now owns the property. I wasn't parked in their lot and was set up on the sidewalk, so the two police vehicles that had driven by hadn't bothered to stop at all, and I hadn't had any indication at all when I was there that the situation had changed. I wonder if it would have been different if more people had stopped to sign. Thankfully, the ice that made it difficult for people to walk up slight inclines is gone again, so having a level lot behind is less important; there are plenty of other places to safely and legally collect signatures. As long as Kwik Trip doesn't raise a fuss about me having actually brought the petition to one man in his vehicle in the lot behind me before I realized they owned the property now, I won't make a fuss about the fact that their sidewalks aren't cleared and might warrant a citation from the city.

1 comment:

  1. Hang in there sister. You're doing what's necessary and right.

    ReplyDelete