Book wait ‘worth every minute’ (Barf Alert)
The State ^ | Today | SARAH SABALOS
Posted on 10/07/2003 3:41 AM PDT by The Anti-Democrat
Mary Vaughn has unusual plans for her signed copy of U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “Living History.”
She’s going to wrap it in a waterproof bag and put it on her mother’s grave.
“My mother was my hero, and she loved and adored Hillary Clinton,” Vaughn said while waiting in line for Monday’s book signing at The Happy Bookseller. “She thought Hillary was Princess Diana and Eleanor Roosevelt rolled into one.”
Clinton signed more than 800 books Monday afternoon before heading to Furman University for a political forum.
Vaughn brought a five-page letter asking Clinton to be the spokesperson for bladder cancer, the disease that took her mother’s life.
Vaughn’s ticket numbers were 206 and 207, so she had something of a wait. As the line moved quickly forward, she agonized over what to say to the senator.
But she didn’t go to quite the lengths of the first five women in line, a group calling themselves The Fabulous Five.
“We slept in the parking lot,” said Frankie Singley Middleton, who bought the first of about 500 tickets available at 6:45 a.m. Saturday morning. “We had doughnuts and newspapers — it was a wonderful time.”
“This is better than a concert,” said her new parking-lot friend, Michelle Sprinkle.
At the end of the line — behind several hundred people of all colors, ages, and genders — was JoAnn Schmidt. She didn’t have a ticket, but hoped Clinton would sign a book for her anyway.
“I’m a big fan. I’ve loved her from Day One, followed her, had fights about her, lost friends,” Schmidt said.
Across the parking lot, a Republican group set up a voter-registration table. Behind it was a life-size cutout of President Bush.
A rock-star cheer erupted in line when Clinton arrived at 2:30 in one of several black, darkly tinted government vehicles.
About 20 minutes later, the senator sat down at the signing table inside the store. The line snaked around the back of the building along Forest Drive.“Hello, ma’am,” she said, extending her hand to one of The Happy Bookseller’s staff members. “Hillary Clinton. Nice to meet you.”
Clinton took a moment with each book holder to answer questions and receive compliments and hugs. After 10 minutes, she had the first of several lipstick prints on her cheeks.
“Are you on a fixed income?” she asked one woman who inquired about the state of Medicare.
She asked book buyers about their jobs and hometowns, fielding questions like, "Where’s Bill?"
"I left him at home," she laughed.
"There’s a devil across the street," one man said to Clinton, gesturing toward the cutout of Bush.
"Yeah, he follows me around," Clinton replied. "It must be a full-time job, I guess..."CLICK HERE for the rest of that thread
Here's a quote from the newspaper article: