This weekend, former senator George McGovern died at 92. I really didn't follow his politics years ago, or even recently. But I volunteered for his campaign way, way back in the 70's, as a kid just in my last year of high school.

We did phone soliciting, late into the night, and it was my first experience drinking coffee also!

The phones we used were not cordless, and certainly not cell phones. We had great big binders full of old-fashioned green & white printout lists. Just like today, the lists were somewhat outdated. I was embarrassed when I asked a wife to let me speak to her husband, only to find out he had passed away.

There was a staff listening in on our conversations, to see how we were doing, and to see what the voters were saying. I don't think you can do that on a bunch of disposable cell phones today!

The most memorable part of all of this, is when I asked, as we were trained to do, what the person on the other end of the phone, thought of the candidate. One person basically said he would like to see something happen to the Senator.

Well, this was a HUGE deal and the staff had to take notes. In fact, the "authorities" actually had to come and talk to me, to see exactly what this person had said. Just in case they actually did something later on.

So to this day, I am very sympathetic to the kids (well, some of us middle-agers are still volunteering too) phoning for candidates.

It's NOT as easy as you may think!