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Adam D. Krauss
Foster's Online
Jun 9, 2007
ROCHESTER — Abbie and Jack Collins say they know how to host large affairs. She comes from a family in the hotel business, and he just comes from a really big family.
But she said there's something different about hosting an afternoon visit by a North Carolina man who speaks with southern hospitality and may occupy the White House in a couple of years.
"Obviously it's going to be a little different because you're going to have people you mostly don't know," Abbie said Friday, just before Democrat John Edwards arrived at her Fiddlehead Lane home.
It would be the family's first such event.
"I just hope people enjoy themselves," she said. "I've been cooking and cleaning all night."
She may have been experiencing the same pre-event jitters as other Seacoast and New Hampshire residents hosting presidential candidates this primary season.
By 1 p.m., cars lined almost the entire stretch of the road and more than 100 people had made their way inside the Collins home, where a feast fit for New Hampshire primary voters was spread across dining room tables and countertops.
It was mostly finger foods, like salami wrapped with cream cheese and horse radish, cocktail-sized hot dogs, Swedish meatballs and lots of chips and dip. The fruit bowl with the green cantaloupe was well-received. Handfuls of empty water bottles lined the kitchen counter.
A few state legislators and local Planning Board members were spotted investigating the cookie tray.
"I think it went very well," Jack said, joking "I'm sure we'll recover" from having so many local and state politicians walk in and out of his house.
The Collins' son, Tyler, works full-time organizing the Rochester area for the Edwards campaign. The family told the campaign long ago they'd host a gathering, but it wasn't until about a week ago that things came together.
The campaign took care of inviting people, but it was up to the Collins to cater to the invitees. They said it was worth the effort
"I just think he tells you how things really are," said Abbie, who supported Edwards in 2004. "He doesn't play games and tell you what you want to hear."
Abbie, a librarian at the East Rochester School, said hosting the event was partly driven by her political activism, but not like her work as an election selectman.
Today, Edwards was to attend a house party at the Exeter home of Greg and Julie Gilman. They had less planning to do because, she said, it was expected to be a shorter visit.
But still, the Gilmans needed to get town approval to allow parking in front of their home on Route 111 and permission from Exeter Hospital for overflow vehicles.
Julie, a selectman, said it was an email-based grassroots effort to get people to attend. She said she, too, was adjusting to having so many strangers in her home.
"It's a little weird," she said.
"The primary is creeping up closer and closer to today," she said. "We needed to give the candidate an opportunity to see people he might not see."
Q&A: Educational Disparity
John Edwards answers a question about educational disparity at Hanover Middle School in Hanover, N.H. on September 27, 2007
Paid for by John Edwards for President Contributions to John Edwards for President are not tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes.
© 2006 John Edwards for President, 410 Market Street, Suite 400, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
