by Staff writer
Two people share their Obama-Before-Fame story:
Former security official Keven Farmer says:
“I grew up 4 blocks from the Robinson family, played basketball with Michelle’s older brother Craig and was a casual acquaintance.
Only saw Michelle once in a blue moon. She was always on her way to do something. She was tall, regal and with a precise way of speaking. She literally and figuratively was going places.
Years later, while working at the Chicago Urban League, I was working to get minorities hired in an asbestos removal project.
My boss told me to go to a meeting being held in the projects [group of low-rent apartment buildings] by this guy named Barack Obama. After hearing him speak that night, my first thought was “this dude could become the president.”
He was cool, self-assured, extremely articulate and easily the smartest guy in the room.
This was way back in 1988 or 89.”
***
Pet expert Chrystal Hays says:
“This is rather a vicarious experience:
My friend in Chicago said one day it was raining and she was walking to her car at the store, her arms full of groceries, and this guy in a shirt and tie came up out of the rain, politely offered to help her, and then said he was running for a local office and that he would appreciate her vote.
He handed her a printed page of something.
She was really struck that a candidate would be wandering in the rain like that, campaigning. It stuck in her mind, and she did later vote for him. That young guy was young Barack Obama.”
Leadership begins somewhere