It’s that season of the year when lawn signs are sprouting as surely as flowers in the spring; elections are just around the corner. And so today we bring you a Civic Duty Friday Five.

1) How old were you when you voted for the first time?

I was 19 … and it was 1980.  I had to vote using an absentee ballot because I was away at college.  It felt very important.

2) What was the contest at the top of the ballot?
It was the presidential election between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Regan with John Anderson running as an independent.  I voted for Anderson because Carter wasn’t cut out for the presidency (or so I thought at the time) and I thought Regan was going to bring doom upon us.  I wish I’d voted for Carter.

3) Can you walk to your polling place?

Yes, I can and I do.  It’s fun.  The only thing I don’t like is the gauntlet of “volunteers” who try to influence my vote as I walk in.  That bothers me.

4) Have you ever run for public office?

Nope.  Probably never will.  My father did, tho.  He was chairman of the schoolboard for my highschool when I was in it.  That sure left a sour taste in my mouth.  Recently my mother ran for the town selectboard of my hometown.  We moved there when I was 6 (in 1967).  It’s a small town in Vermont.  She ran against a man who’s family has been there for several generations.  This is not an exaggeration … one of his slogans was that my mother was a newcomer to town … this after she’s lived there for 38 years!!!

5) Have you run for office in a club or school or on a board?

Yes.  I’ve run for vice president of my quilt guild and won.  That meant that I served as vice president for a year, then as president the following year.  I think I also ran for a position on the board of directors in a fife and drum corps that LightHusband and I used to belong to.  That was fun.