Historic

Tonight, Carrie and I were celebrating the historic election, calling everyone we know to express our excitement, whether they wanted to hear it or not. I was speaking to my sister, who recommended that we go downtown Ann Arbor to see if anything was going on. After I hung up, I asked Carrie if she wanted to go, and she said "OK".

We knew that there was an election party at Cafe Felix, so we figured we would check out Main Street first, before going closer to campus. But as we got to the main strip, there was nothing going on. The streets were dead, but there were some people out at the bars of course.

We turned down Washington and headed towards State Street. Still pretty quiet. We had our windows down, and finally we got a scream from a couple walking down the street, so we hollered back - someone was finally happy! Then, we hit State Street, right in front of BWs, then turned right. Suddenly, you could just hear this huge roar. So help me, we looked and saw just hundreds of people walking north on State from campus, turning west onto Liberty. There it was! The celebration! Carrie says, "we should get out!" Of course, right next to us was the available parking spot we needed!! We parked, got out, and joined in the march down Liberty Street, all the while calling everyone we know so that they could hear the cheers.

If I have to name 10 of the most memorable moments of my life when I am on my deathbed, I don't know if there will be enough to knock this one off the list. We all marched down Liberty all the way to Main Street. And I mean the streets and sidewalks were packed full the whole way - there had to be a thousand people, mostly students, just marching, and hooting and hollering - "O-bam-a", "U-S-A", or even "Go Blue"! Random bouts of cheering and applauding, as we walked in the middle of traffic regardless of the color of the traffic lights. Cars driving by and honking and high fiving out of the windows of their cars. Me, trying to take pictures with my camera phone. The cops driving by and telling us all to get out of the middle of the street.

So many things I will remember - people coming out on their balconies to cheer and watch and take pictures, people coming out of bars to cheer, people taking videos, some kids playing a drum and an accordion in a doorway on the parade route, random cowbells. We made the right turn onto Main Street - there was the party at Cafe Felix! People in the lofts on Main Street had their windows open and were waving giant American flags. People just smiling and applauding and cheering and loving the absolute spontaneity of the moment.

We turned onto Washington from Main Street (the second time that night for us, only this time on foot). However, I had to stop - we were somewhere in the middle of the pack, and I wanted to stand off to the side just to see how long the parade really was. I pulled Carrie over at the corner, and we looked. We were standing next to an older couple, maybe 50-ish. I looked over at her - the woman was crying at the wonder and the happiness of the situation. I love the Ann Arborites! She was basically expressing what we were all feeling.

The walk down Washington was more of the same - cheering, people in the bars coming out to high five us, cars honking and cheering. People banging pots and pans along the sidelines. One woman walking in the opposite direction, stopping one of the girls in front of us and asking what was going on, only to be told "I don't know - this just kind of happened!" Then, maybe my favorite moment of the night - 2 African American students meeting in the middle of the street and giving each other an extended bear hug, one that expressed the emotions inherent in the moment, emotions that I will never be fully capable of understanding. That hug - that moment - this is why we were celebrating. That was why we were marching. It was just too exciting of a moment, too historical of a moment, that we had to share it with others. We live in the perfect town for that moment, and just gave me a level of civic pride - hell, national pride - that might never be topped.

Luckily, the parade route brought us full circle to our car. We had to come home, because Carrie had to wake up in less than 5 hours. As we drove south down State, we rolled down the windows and played Obama's acceptance speech at full blast. Then we watched it when we got home. Carrie knew she was going to be tired, but I don't think she cared at all. Still - I will always remember walking down Liberty with Carrie, and just looking at her and having her look at me, and wordlessly expressing to each other the awesomeness of the moment.