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Step One: Assemble the Ingredients, Naturally
Sen. Barack Obama at the home of Meg and Gary Hirshberg, of Stonyfield Farm, hoping to gain their support.
(Photos By Laurie Swope For The Washington Post)
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Politics is not a new plaything for the Hirshbergs. Gary, 53, can still close his eyes and remember Sen. John F. Kennedy stumping for votes for his 1960 nomination. He himself was bounced on Nelson Rockefeller's knee at a "Rocky Rally" at the Manchester Armory. In 1968, when Coretta Scott King and her four children needed refuge from the world following her husband's assassination, she came to New Hampshire, where, through family friends, Gary's family and the King children spent time together.
"They were just kids," Hirshberg says, "and they missed their dad."
As the daughter of antiwar activists in New York state and with brothers of draft age, Meg, too, came to politics early. She was staying with her family in Chicago at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in 1968 when police officers outside the Democratic National Convention bloodied protesters. Seven years later she dropped out of Brown University to work for Jimmy Carter.
Today Stonyfield's plant has become a destination for Democratic candidates, and the Hirshberg home -- built from 70 tall pine trees Gary cut and dried -- a coveted spot for fundraising and outreach. Earlier this year after very publicly prepping for a run for the Senate seat held by John Sununu, Hirshberg backed off.
"In some respects not running for Senate was probably better politically," Hirshberg says. "I am obviously politically active without having to go to Washington. Here I'm able to meet with politicians and directly address the issues I care about."
Certainly candidates take the two seriously. If his birthday card hadn't already wooed Meg, Obama went one step further in the back yard of the Hirshberg home, inviting the crowd to sing "Happy Birthday" before he began to speak.
When Obama mentioned an early job as a community organizer making $13,000 a year, Gary looked at his wife, remembering a time when together they made $26,000 annually, when their lives seemed full of infinite possibility.
Gary Hirshberg called the winner on July 5, but they agreed to withhold the news until yesterday, so that they could speak with Elizabeth Edwards.
The Hirshbergs are going with Obama.
