Many years ago, my parents lived in a little town called Wallsburg. At the time, they had nine children. Dad was a busy man. He taught school, drove school bus, had a small farm, was the Bishop of our ward and served on the town council.Mom was a busy woman. With nine children, there was always laundry to be done, bread to be made, dinner to cook and dishes to wash in addition to being Primary President. Because Dad was the bishop and on the town council, there were many nights when Mom had to put all nine children to bed--helping brush teeth, read stories and tuck us in. We didn't necessarily want to go to bed, so getting us to stay in bed until we actually fell asleep was a daunting task.
At a town council meeting, Dad learned about an upcoming state delegate election. He was enjoying his service in our small city government and thought it might be exciting to move on to bigger and better things. State delegate from our little town could be a good step forward. He told Mom of the opportunity and in spite of her concerns that he was already too busy, he decided to run.
Cows far outnumbered people in Wallsburg and of the 300 citizens, there weren't very many who were interested in who was their state delegate. I'm not sure there was much campaigning by Dad or his opponent, because the night of the election, there were eleven registered voters who entered the booth.
Dad was a shoo-in. Of the eleven voters, six were from Dad's family. There were Dad and Mom, Dad's parents, and two of his brothers. There were only five other voters. Gleefully, Dad's contingency, watched and waited as the eleven votes were counted. When the winner was announced, it was Dad's opponent with six votes.
Dad and his family left the town hall with shock registering on their faces. How was this possible? They walked silently a half block to Grandpa and Grandma's house, where they stood in the front yard, mystified.
"What happened?" Dad asked.
"Who didn't vote for you?" Grandpa wondered.
"I didn't," Mom courageously confessed.
"Why not?" Dad was incredulous.
"I need you at home once in awhile. The kids need to see more of you."
I'm not sure what the rest of Dad's family thought. My guess is that they had some pretty lively conversations about the election and Mom's treacherous betrayal.
I guess Mom never had dreams of being the first lady. Dad never ran for office again.
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