Wow, Finny. That’s beautiful. I got tears trickling through my cold cream. (I bet el Rushbo will comment on this later today. (it’s 4:31 AM where I am). I am really amazed that this actually happened, but not surprised. Oh, to have been there! He can resign all he wants, but he still is the titular head of the RNC.
This was just 2 years before I become a listener of the EIB. I’m sorry I missed it. Crap damn, that WAS the first tea party!
Prior, I was a non-interested party, although I loved Uncle Ronnie. Just was too young and stupid to realize politics mattered. I ended up driving a hooptie that only had AM. Picking up Rush’s show, at first I was appalled and insulted, and listened only to take my Road Rage out on the radio instead of the folks on the PIP.
Then about 2 weeks later, the Common Damn Sense Fairy hit me over the head with a flag pole and I said “Oh....”....been a fan and a Patriot ever since and I don’t really care if I have FM or not.
Thanks for posting this, it’s a great story and a great memory, and a tremendously uplifting account of how damn wonderful we - the faithful Republicans who GET IT - are.
Be blessed.
Believe me, I got choked up reading the original letter (about twice as long) and retyping it into my computer so I could post it today. It's been edited for space and while it was dated May 24 and my Mom wrote the bulk of it in the days immediately following the bake sale, I think the version I was finally able to dig up had been slightly fiddled with (talking about how Dan called the following Monday, for example). I know that my mom wrote it not so much to or for me, as along the lines of one of those Christmas letters copied and sent to all kinds of people.
At the time -- remember, Rush had only been on the air nationally for about five years -- I was not a regular listener to Rush, and had only just discovered him because my folks said they loved listening to him while driving. They'd call from on the road (they'd retired, sold their house, and taken off in a fifth wheeler to explore America for a few years, and were having a blast) and my mom would say, "We're heading for Dan's Bake Sale." I'd say, "What's that?" and she'd say, "Oh, nevermind, then, it's not important," and I could hear the smile in her voice!
It was kind of an inside joke among Rush listeners, I guess! Regular folks, when they saw cars and RVs on the road with "Dan's Bake Sale or Bust" signs, had no idea what they meant. Rush listeners sure did!!!
I started listening right about the time of the Bake Sale. I remember looking eagerly in the L.A. Times and watching the network news, for stories about Dan's Bake Sale ... not a peep. I remember seeing a few very short write-ups in the back pages of a news magazine, maybe Time, and an AP or UPI report equally short and unimpressive. My gosh ... 50,000 or so people converging on a little town spontaneously to show their support of a conservative talk radio phenomenon who'd only been on the air for about five years ... talk about SIGNIFICANT!
But the MSM approach was as if it never happened. Yet Rush went on to become, 16 years later, easily the most listened-to talk show host in America and probably the world. This shows me that the MSM can ignore stories all it wants, but reality marches on. The reality 16 years ago was that a vast groundswell of Americans found their voice in Rush Limbaugh, and it was a significant event in American history.
I sometimes wonder: if the MSM had covered Dan's Bake Sale for the significant event that it was, how many of us would have assumed that the coverage was what led Rush to become so popular, and had the MSM not covered it, Rush would never have become such a conservative icon?
But the fact is that the MSM ignored the event, as if it never happened. The MSM didn't "make" Rush. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DID.
God bless Rush Limbaugh!
My mom recently celebrated her 80th birthday, my dad his 87th, and this year marked their 61st wedding anniversary! God blessed ME with wonderful parents ... I am grateful!