Obama Speech at the Detroit River: September 5, 2011

So, I know its been a while since I've updated, but here is my entry that I forgot to post about Obama.


September 5, 2011:
After we finished with Arts, Beats, and Eats we went home and watched Shrek 1 & 2, then we did some homework and went to bed to be prepared for the long day ahead. Mom gave us a wake up call at 7:30 A.M. (which to a college student is unheard of) before we got up and started the morning right with scrambled eggs, toast, and granola bars. Then, sadly, when we got ready to go, Mom still ended up making us late. We parked the car and got ready for the big Labor Day Parade in downtown Detroit.

Frances at the Union Hall in Detroit

This is what our signs looked like. Notice the army of union behind us.

This is one of the many Teamster shirts that we had around us

This is what our shirts looked like

After we finished up at the parade we ran (literally) down to the river so that we could get as close as we possibly could to the area where Obama would be speaking. We got to our spots and started waiting around until Obama would speak. We had to wait for almost 2 hours before things got really going, and even then, it took almost another 2 hours before Obama spoke. There were so many speakers! James Hoffa and heads of other labor unions also spoke, then we had senators, house representatives, mayors, and all kinds of other political people who spoke. Then....Finally! The main event! Aretha Franklin took to the stage!

Aretha and her band leaving the stage

So, Aretha came on the stage. Her performance was fantastic. It always amazes me how a person can perform the same songs for 40 years and still have the kind of tenacity while singing the song that they had when the song first debuted. In the middle of one of the songs she has some technical difficulties, which Aretha shrugged off like a true pro. The microphone and the bass cut out, but the techie nerds got it back up and running. (Where would we be without techie nerds?) As soon as Aretha left we had to sit through a couple more speeches, which were well written and delivered at the right time for Detroit to start to get some help. Then Obama took to the stage.

He spoke wonderfully. He was encouraging and interesting. He didn't speak long, but he did preview a bit about his Jobs plan (which was to debut the following Thursday). He told us about how he wants to give the U.S. more jobs, wants to improve the infrastructure at the same time, but hiring people who are from the U.S. to start to fix up the country. By the end of it we were all going mad!

After this we rushed out of the arena before the crowds really go going. We heard the last 5 minutes of the speech while running from the area. And man, did we run! I didn't realize how much my feet were hurting until I started running on them. We made it out of the arena and called mom who was going to come find us and drive us back over to the union hall. We sat outside and waited for QUITE a while, before she found us. I can't say I didn't enjoy sitting though. My feet were done.

We had no maracas, so we made do with our bellies.

When we were found we went back to the hall in search of food. Remember that breakfast at 7:30 AM? Yeah, that was the last time we'd eaten. It was now around 6 PM. So, after mom got her life together, we went back to her condo and rustled up some grub. Steve ordered pizza, and Fran and I raided the fridge until the pizza arrived.

I'd have to say that this was one of my most memorable days of my life.