Fictional accounts of life in the
Upper Delaware River Valley

By TOM KANE

Inez Potter who lives up the road from me must be about 95 years old. No one knows for sure, not even her. She was born into a family of 13 children so her exact birthday got lost in the shuffle. Her father had two wives so there were half-brothers and half-sisters-half-wits is the way she puts it.

"I must be 96 since my brother Jeb, who is three years younger than me, swears he's 93," she said to me the other day when I went to the town hall to vote.

Inez has been an election monitor for a number of years. She's not exact about that either. She's also one of the few Democrats in the town. Inez says that in her town Democrats also get lost in the shuffle since there are so few of them.

"I've been a Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt became president," she said. "Or it might have been Teddy Roosevelt. I can't remember which Roosevelt it was."

To be a Democrat in such the Republican stronghold as our town takes a great deal of individualism and spunk-qualities of which Inez has a generous supply. "I don't know why so many people around here are Republicans," she said. "You'd think they had a lot of money and played the stock market, but they don't."

She claims years ago during a Democratic administration there was a group of people just north of the town who refused to pay income tax.

"The government sent a bunch of mean-looking federal marshals who arrested the leaders of the faction. From that time on, people started voting Republican."

"I'm not a Democrat just to be different as my brother Jeb claims," Inez said. "Jeb always was a mama's boy. I was always papa's little girl so I guess I'm more like him."

Troy Potter was a railroad man who traveled a lot.

"Papa was on the road all the time," said Inez. "So when he came home, it was an event and all us kids would line up in front of him as he doled out little gifts he had for us. All of my brothers and sisters would butter daddy up so they'd get a nice present but I didn't. I used to complain that he wasn't home enough. I'd say it right to his face. I guess that's why he liked me better than the others. I said things that were on my mind as truthful as I could. That's the way I am."

I guess it was this quality of saying truthfully what she thought and not what others wanted her to say that led her to taking a stance different than those around her. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican shouldn't make any difference. It's standing up for what you believe that makes all the difference.