Fannie Flagg - Standing in the Rainbow

For the first time in her life she was going to speak up.

Hamm called Vita from Detroit as excited as she had ever heard him. He had just come back to his hotel from speaking to over five thousand members of the teamsters union. "I can win this thing, Vita. For the first time, I really see I have to run. Walter told me he could deliver all of the union vote. He said I was just what the country needed, that people were tired of being pushed around."

"How did the speech go?"

"Great!"

Hamm had been campaigning nationally for just a few months but not only was he popular in the rural areas, as was expected, but to everyone's surprise he was already starting to draw huge crowds in Chicago, Newark, and Pittsburgh, and was gaining momentum every day. Hamm had hit a nerve or, as one columnist put it, he had tapped into a gold mine of unrest in the country and he was the only candidate who was "telling it like it is," saying publicly what they were thinking privately. Many people were upset at the way they thought the country was headed. They were angry at the way the federal government seemed to be forcing things on them they did not want. They worried that if someone did not stop it there was no telling where it would end. There was a growing concern in middle America that all the wealthy liberal eastern politicians, with their endless giveaway programs, were leading the nation down the road to socialism and bogging it down with needless bureaucracy.

Almost everyone was frustrated with the way the war was going and what they perceived to be a weakness on the part of the government to do anything to stop it. They were shocked at the lack of respect the protesters had for the American soldiers fighting in Vietnam, particularly those who had served in the Second World War and Korea.

Ada Goodnight, who had been a pilot in the Second World War, said she would be happy to go to Vietnam right now if she could. To them war was war and a draft dodger was a traitor. There was racial unrest everywhere and uneasiness about the rise of crime, drugs, and gangs in the cities and how it was being handled. It seemed to numerous voters that, thanks to the growing power of the ACLU, criminals were beginning to have more rights than the victims. Preachers across the country were becoming alarmed about the young people's apathy and lack of morals. Some blamed television. Or as Reverend W. W Nails put it, "The devil has three initials: ABC, NBC, and CBS. They love Lucy more than they do the Lord and they would rather leave it to Beaver than to Jesus." The average middle-class Americans who worked hard every day, who were not criminals, not on welfare, and had seldom complained, suddenly and collectively started showing signs of growing disillusionment, worried that with all the new social programs they were now going to have to carry the rich and the poor on their backs.

They were tired of having to pay so much income and other taxes to support half the world while they struggled to make ends meet. They began to feel that no matter how hard they worked or how much they paid, it was never appreciated and it was never enough.

But most of all they were scared. They looked around and saw the bright and shining true-blue America they had known growing up beginning to tarnish, tear, and fall apart at the seams. Hamm Sparks knew exactly how to verbalize their fears and frustration for them. Unlike the rest of the potential candidates, he seemed to understand their point of view.

As Rodney said, Hamm knew where the public itched and just how to scratch it. And scratch it he did. He took full advantage of all the upset and unrest, told his audiences exactly what they wanted to hear. He got more people mad and upset, more frightened, and was gaining more support by the day. Soon Hamm came down with a full-blown case of Washington fever and started doing anything he thought could get him in the White House. He made deals with people he should not have, said things that were more and more outrageous. Vita told him to be careful. Betty Raye begged him to come home. But it was like trying to stop a moving train. He was not a bad man, just a recklessly ambitious man. Soon even the people around him began to worry and Wendell put it best. When a woman at the John Birch Society luncheon gushed that she thought Hamm was the only man who could save America,

Wendell said, "That's fine if she believes it. But when Hamm starts believing it, we are in big trouble."

Norma was over at the beauty shop for her weekly hair appointment and Macky was eating his lunch at the Trolley Car Diner, as he did every Friday. Sitting at the counter, a few of the other men were discussing politics and Hamm Sparks, as usual. Macky said, "The guy is dangerous. He's getting crazier by the minute. Right now he's got every lunatic-fringe group and hate group coming out of the woodwork. If somebody doesn't shut him up, he's going to drag us right back into McCarthyism and the next thing we know we're going to be dragged into a war with Russia."

"I read the other day that the Klan was backing him now," Ed said.

Merle, who was just a step away from being a part of the radical right wing, said, "He can't help who backs him. He came out in the newspaper and said he wasn't one of them."

Macky said, "He says that, I can guarantee it, but he's taking money from them right now and God knows who else."

"What do you think, Jimmy?" asked Ed. Jimmy, who had not said anything, said quietly, "I agree with Macky. He needs to shut up and quit putting his wife through all this mess."

Ed said, "Yeah, but how are you going to stop him? Like he says, it's a free country."

Monroe Newberry, who had come in from the tire store, added, "I was talking to Bobby on the phone the other day and he says all the big insurance companies up there are getting behind Hamm, but I don't know what his real chances are."

Merle said, "I don't care what the papers say, I think he has a good chance to win."

Jimmy took a swipe at the counter with his rag but said nothing else.

Two blocks away, at Tot Whooten's beauty shop, the conversation was definitely not about politics. Betsy Dockrill, who had just come out from under the dryer and was getting ready to be combed out, remarked, "They are having a sale on caper coats out at Montgomery Ward. I got two, they were so cheap."

Tot pulled Betsy's hair net off. "Well, I wish I had time to sit around the house in a caper coat. I don't even have time to shop for one, with my schedule. By the time I close this place up at night, all I want to do is go home and get off my feet."

"You need to take a day off once in a while."

"I would if I could." Tot cut her eyes in the direction of Darlene, her twenty-five-year-old daughter, who worked in the shop with her.

Betsy got the implication. Darlene was not overly intelligent and could not be left alone in the shop without someone watching to make sure she wouldn't put the wrong thing on a customer's hair again. Tot's insurance was already sky-high.

Norma was sitting in the next chair, with her hair half rolled up, flipping through a magazine. She asked Tot, who was taking a drag off her cigarette, "Do you think Elizabeth Taylor is happy?"

Tot blew the smoke out. "She's sporting a diamond the size of a doorknob, why wouldn't she be?"

"I just wonder if all that fame and money and all those husbands have made her really happy."

"Well," Tot said, "if she's not, I'd like to switch places with her. I'd be downright delirious. She can keep the men; I just want the money and the ring. Between having to put up with Daddy and James, not to mention Dwayne Junior, I've done my time in hell, thank you."

"Oh Tot, you make it sound so terrible. I can't believe your life has been all bad. Weren't you ever happy?"