Currently politics is front and center in many people’s thoughts as this country prepares for the upcoming Presidential election. It seems that over the years, politics and the elections have become more torrid, verbal and targeted. It wasn’t always that way.
Growing up in a Republican family, my Granddad and Granny Boyles did not back away from their political views. It seemed my parents followed suit. Granddad and Granny thought highly of President Dwight D. Eisenhower partly because he was a Kansas guy, second was he was a successful general in W.W.II. My grandparents at that time had three sons in the service of their country. There was a little china pitcher that sat proudly in Granny’s china cabinet featuring a photo of President and Mrs. Eisenhower and years later, I was blessed to inherit that little pitcher. It now sits in my cabinet.
My first serious involvement into politics came in 1960, as a soon-to-be 8th grader. McDill “Huck” Boyd of the Boyd family publishing partnership was running as a Republican candidate in the election to become the governor of Kansas. His brother, Frank “Bus” Boyd was also involved in the family’s publishing business and was the editor of the Jewell County Record in Mankato. Bus and his family were seriously campaigning for Huck and during the summer of 1960, a campaigning caravan of Jewell County youth was recruited. Since my grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles were Republicans, I was asked to be a part of this campaign caravan. Several youth met in Mankato on a chosen day, dressed appropriately. We donned straw hats with a red, white and blue bands around the hats. We piled into cars and I and two others were put into the car driven by Bus along with his wife, Mary. Other Boyd family members drove their loaded cars in the caravan, following each other in a line down the highway.
I can’t remember how many towns we stopped at where we got out of the cars with posters to hand out as we walked up and down the main streets. Of course the posters promoted the election of Huck Boyd. The last stop was at Manhattan, Kansas, and that was a lot of fun. Then it was back to Mankato at the end of the day. If my memory is correct, there were other caravans that went out and included more youth over that summer.
The Boyd family and that summer will be remembered as a special time for me in 1960, even though our candidate was not elected that year.
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