Well elections and politics are in the air and some people enjoy that type of thing. I confess I'm not a political person, oh I vote faithfully in every election but I don't participate in campaigns for or against anyone or anything and I would never dream of running for office for city council or school board. I'll leave that to those people who like politics.

I got soured on running for office in Junior High. It was a bad experience.

I was in the seventh grade. I had been elected to various offices in my class, Vice President, Secretary, and things like that, but when it came time for all school election that was a horse of a different shade.

One day I was sitting with my class in the auditorium when Jo Ann Jenkins was nominated for Vice President of the Seventh grade class. I knew she would be elected. Jo Ann Jenkins was a very sweet girl and extremely popular. Everyone liked her. She was so pretty and so friendly, I liked her too.

I was startled when one of my classmates nominated me for Vice President and I was chosen to run against Jo Ann Jenkins. To say I was embarrassed is putting it lightly. I knew I didn't stand a chance but I was stuck, there was no way I could get out of it.

I asked the girl I thought was my best friend, Jo Ann Rowden to be my campaign manager. She agreed.

Now this was during World War II. I had been to the Rowden home and knew her mother but her father, a local dentist was gone to the service.

The next week my friend and campaign manager gave me the unpleasant news that "Jo Ann Jenkins asked me to be her campaign manager. My mother says I can't be your campaign manager." So my best friend resigned as campaign manager and as my friend.

I got another campaign manager but I can't remember for the life of me who that poor girl was, all I can remember is the shock of losing a friend and campaign manager to the "other side."

I knew I didn't stand a chance but I lived through it and finally election day came. We were once more sitting in the auditorium, this time we were voting. I was scrunched down as far as I could get in my seat.

Now in our class was Charles Jones, one of those boys who thought he was a comic, he was cute but his comedy left something to be desired. His words to me "You're pretty" -- words every girls likes to hear -- were followed by laughter, "pretty ugly and pretty apt to stay that way." Today I know that if I had laughed at him he wouldn't have enjoyed it so much but in the seventh grade I did just what he wanted me to do. I had an ugly temper and I blew up and told him what a rotten fink he was. He made the "pretty ugly and pretty apt to stay that way" comment more than once and always laughed like a hyena.

Well, sure enough I lost the election, but I did get more votes than I expected. After the elections I was feeling lower than a snake's underside anyway but to make matters even worse here comes the great class comic, Charles Jones. "Dotty's going to cry," he taunted. "She's going to cry because she lost the election."

"I am not," I shouted and headed for home as fast as I could. I wasn't about to let him see me cry but I sure had to do some fast swallowing and was so glad to get home so I could cry as much as I wanted.

It was a bad experience and that's why I'll never run for City Council or school board. If I lost I'd probably run home and cry.

Many years later we were in La Junta and stopped to look through the Koshare Indian Museum in La Junta. There was Jo Ann Jenkins. She was working in the museum and she recognized me. She told me about her husband, she had married Charles Jones.

I wondered if Charles Jones ever told Jo Ann Jenkins, "You're pretty -- pretty ugly and pretty apt to stay that way." He probably didn't, I suppose I had that dubious honor.