A certain corner in a subdivision near me sprouted 4 Obama yard signs about a month ago. It is on my path, as the crow flies, to the beer store, Pizza Hut and AutoZone, so I am a frequent traveller past what I call Crazy Corner. I took this same route to and from work for 10 years, so I have seen all of the denizens of this corner at one time or another and watched the houses being sold and bought until they reached their current occupancy.

Most of the Crazy Corner houses are owned by white folks between 40 and 60 years old, but one house is owned by a black woman in her 60′s. She was the last one to put up an Obama yard sign, and, as it turns out, the first one to take it down.

Now, I say “take it down” guardedly, because we have had high winds around here from the tropical storm in Florida, and the Obama signs are rather flimsy affairs, more akin to lawn sails than yard signs. The Obama sign across the street from her looked like it had been partially blown over by the wind.

Her sign is completely gone from its sheltered position in the mailbox garden as of Friday morning. I don’t know if pranksters took it; All of the other signs are still up. I got to wondering, if she took it down, then why? What made her take it down. It certainly wasn’t her neighbors or the homeowner’s association, and I’ve never seen any campaign signs–R or D–defaced or destroyed around here(although some prankster festooned a Kerry sign with a pair of flip-flops in ’04).

Then I started thinking that maybe she’s a religious person and attends church regularly. Maybe she saw or heard about the Saddleback forum. Maybe ahe found out about Obama’s position on Infanticide. Maybe she couldn’t square her beliefs with a man who worshipped in Jeremiah Wright’s church for twenty years.

Or maybe the sign blew out into the road and got chewed up under a landscaping truck.

I’ll be watching to see if another sign goes up.

a more sanguine view of things that arouse political passions in younger people. I have learned this first hand from my father, and the older I get, the less perturbed I am by changing ideological tides, political fluctuations and faddish hype. I’m not saying that passion for ideals is bad, just that it needs to be tempered by time and perspective.

It is entirely conceivable that there is a cohort of black people 60+ years old who look at Obama and see not the flowering hope for the future in a post-racial utopia, but instead a preening mediocrity who promises things which they have learned in their lifetimes are unworkable or antithetical to their own morality.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep watching for signs.

I see Obama bodysurfing down the Cahoolawassee, about to be run over by Fred and Jon in their 17′ Grumman.

I’m asknig for PhotoShop for my birthday, just to help take the load off you.