Throwback Thursday, Registering to Vote

Throwback to Thursday, Registering to Vote.

The election ads season is here.  Of course election means voting. 

But before one votes one has to register, so here we go.

When I turned 18 I went to the Old Cobb County Courthouse to register to vote.     I went to the voters registration office at the Old Courthouse.  In the hallway was a drinking fountain with a WHITE ONLY sign.  Near it was a WHITE MEN restroom and a WHITE LADIES restroom  The “COLORED” restroom and water fountain was in the basement somewhere.

In the Voter Registration Office I told the kindly elderly gentleman there I wanted to register to vote and he gave me the form to fill out, which I did.  Then he told me you had to be able to pass the literacy test to qualify to vote.  He handed me a sheet of paper and told me to read aloud what was on lit.  It was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

I started:  “Four Scores and Seven Years Ago…”

He said, “You passed.”

I said I had just started.

He said that I correctly pronounced the key word, I did not say “Foe” instead of Four and gave me a knowingly smile.

The polite jovial old man went on to say if the pronunciation requirement was strictly enforced, “no telling who “THEY” would vote for.”

I knew that was just wrong.  But I did not dare say so because I have a slight well-hidden-most-the-time speech impediment and he might have had me read the rest of The Gettysburg Address.

I bet the old fart was spinning in his grave  January 20, 2009.