I read the last newsletter about the ’76 convention and the arduous work of so many Carter campaign folks. There clearly was elation and exhaustion. There was another side, too. For us, Udall staff, it was the end of the road and sadness. I was twenty two, just out of graduate school when I joined the Udall campaign. I’d been an activist on social issues but had never been in a presidential campaign. Right after Christmas in 1975, I was sent off to Iowa and thus began my life as an advance man for Mo. I didn’t join Udall ’76 for any specific policy issues or even knowing much about the candidate. Yet for this kid from the south side of Chicago whose first taste of presidential politics was being a McCarthy volunteer at the famed Chicago Convention in ’68, was on his way to a wondrous path. Unlike the Carter folks who were working 24/7 in NY, we were, umm, a bit relaxed as our schedules were mostly, empty. Yet for this idealist who came to appreciate Udall and his many facets including a wild and wicked sense of humor, the convention was an end, I thought at the time. A dark period. I was hurt. Angry. Jobless. Soon after, the Mondale folks reached out to Mo’s advance team and offered us jobs in the Carter/Mondale Campaign. Elated. I was back on the road. Thus began another part of my career which eventually brought me to the White House as one of Rosalynn’s press aides. It was a path I never knew I would walk.