The Winter of 1984

Ahhh that was when the last shreds of my charmless youthful naivete' died on the icy streets of Manchester New Hampshire...somewhere between Bridge Street and North Adams Road if you must know.
In those days, Humble Elias was a feckless undergraduate at one of southern New Hampshire's TOP Benedictine Roman Catholic colleges, thus he had a front row seat to the whole gaudy miserable presidential carnival.
So I've always had a somewhat jaundiced view of the whole "First in the Nation Primary" mishaugas...millions are raised out of state, thousands of volunteers are drafted and sent in...all to convince a xenophobic, surly and entirly homogenous electorate that they are a heroic breed to put The Seven Against Thebes to shame.
These days, Manchester NH is actually even seedier and more hopeless than when I was living there under the frosty aufklarung of Governor John "Fishguts" Sununu. The streets are chillingly empty at noon on a Sunday morning, "I Am Legend" could easily be filmed there sans recourse to CGI effects.
Manchester is a perpetually dying new england mill town, ruled by petty indignataries who try their wan wasted best to tart up for the presidential candidates. It's a town that actually looks older and more haunted every four years despite sporadic efforts to breath new life into it's brittle bones.
Credit Chris Dodd for having a huge walk in headquarters on Elm Street (th' main drag as my grey haired old mother would put it) which was decorously closed as of 1pm today.
I recall that Senator Lugar had just as huge a headquarters for his run in 2000, didn't do him much good though.
Mitt Romney's headquarter's was a few doors down and open as well, but only for show purposes with one lone staffer to roam the whole joint. He was nice enough to point out where some of the other playas were camped out locally. He also pointedly and primly noted that Ron Paul was "in Concord" as if to say that a candidate only matters if they are set up on Elm Street in Manchester NH.
Giuliani's headquarters on the tonier north side of town, was fairly active, I even managed to score a button off the very nice receptionist (thanks and I really do collect these baubles).
Hillary Clinton's headquarters seemed faily well hidden...I got contradictory directions from several worthies in the approved "Burt and I" fashion...ultimately I gave up the chase.
Barack Obama on the other hand is firmly dug in at what amounts to a warehouse farm off Valley Road. The office was bustling with activity, but then the candidate and OPRAH were gonna make an appearance tonight at the "Verizon Wireless Center".
What all this points to, is that Elm Street, the very center of town in the state's largest city, is no longer a player in presidential politics, the myraid of empty storefronts and languishing office spaces only underscore the unhappy truth, campaigns can really stretch a rental dollar a mere mile away in some shopping plaza near the highway.
It's a sad town too cold to be wistful really. On the other hand one thing I've noticed from my college days til today, small retailers are all uniformly honest and even kind after a fashion. I bought two slices of pizza at a local shop this afternoon for lunch and got a third one fresh and for free, the owner opined "You look hungry"...I think he even discounted me.
That is pretty much the case all over town, the numerous second hand stores have great bargains and everyone looks like they just got over a crying jag.