Cindy Baker’s penchant for being part of the political scene brought her into contact with President Clinton last August in a manner that many people with years of political connections would envy. Ms. Baker was not only able to meet Mr. Clinton and shake his hand; but she also spent some time with him touring his presidential campaign train, sat next to him at a rally, and got a hug from him in front of 20,000 people.
Ms. Baker, a Chillicothe native and 1996 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, gives the immediate impression of “can do,” probably because she has done. After a divorce left her with three children to raise on her own, Ms. Baker decided she would go to college so she could find employment somewhere other than in a restaurant. She received her master’s degree in political science from Ohio University in December but not without a lot of hard work.
"I was a waitress and tended bar for sixteen years," Ms. Baker said. When I started going to college I crocheted crafts and made pretty good money selling Christmas angels and doilies at bazaars and festivals. I was very creative with what I had left over from financial aid and I was very careful about how I spent my money."
Ms. Baker was able to take her first three years of college at the Chillicothe campus, but for two years she made the one-and-a-half-hour drive to the Athens campus several days a week to finish her undergraduate and graduate degrees. "I hated the dr ive—there were too many trucks on the road," she said.
Because her children, who are now nineteen, fourteen, and nine, were still young, Ms. Baker said she spent all her study time at home so she could be with them more.
At first it was difficult for my children. I just planted myself in the living room, and it took a little time for the kids to get the idea that there were times when craziness was okay, but if I got really tense because I was having a test th ey had to be a little quieter. It actually worked out really well because my going back to college gave my kids the idea that this is what they would do. My oldest son is in college now. I don’t think they would have gotten around to this kind of thinking otherwise.
Ms. Baker credits a letter-writing campaign she initiated during her first summer in college in 1992 to her eventual connection with President Clinton. "I was very busy with school, I didn’t have a car, and the kids were still pretty young. I wrote t o him a number of times that summer, telling him my ideas about welfare and healthcare reform. I said I’d like to see him on the campaign trail, but I had kids and no car and I invited him to come to Chillicothe."
Mr. Clinton scheduled his first visit to Chillicothe not during his campaign but after he had been elected. "It was in January 1993, and he had just made his state of the union address, when we heard he was coming to our town," Ms. Baker remembe
red.
I told everybody, "See, he’s coming because I invited him," and they just laughed at me. But the week before he came I got a phone call from the White House and a man asked,"Would you like to have good seats?" I said," Yes," but I had promised a favorite instructor, John Reiger, professor of history, that I’d get a good seat for him. So I asked for one for Dr. Reiger. We got to sit in the front row and Dr. Reiger was thrilled.
But Ms. Baker’s Clinton connection was only just beginning. The president planned a whistle stop in Chillicothe as part of his campaign trip to Chicago to the Democratic National Convention in August 1996.
The day before the president came I was getting ready to leave to get my hair done and go to the grocery when the phone rang. It was a man from the White House again. He told me they’d heard I’d had some successes since they were here last tim e—I probably wrote them about my progress in college. He asked if I had tickets and I said, "Yes." He asked if I would like to be a little closer, and I said, "Okay," but I needed tickets for my family. I figured this was just about si tting closer.
It turned out to be much more than sitting closer. The White House had decided to ask Ms. Baker to introduce the president. Ms. Baker got caught up in an evening of writing a short speech and discovering the process by which such an event becomes official
.
They wanted me to write about what had happened to me, so I focused on financial aid and how we need to support that, how the president is doing okay on that, and how we should vote for him again. And then I’d introduce him. I had to read it t o people from the White House (over the phone) about five times. It was quite exciting.
I wasn’t scared of anything except getting on the train to meet the president and talk with him. There were 20,000 people at the rally, the most I’ve ever talked in front of, and I wasn’t scared of that, I love to talk in front of people. I was just scare d to talk to the president by myself.When the train arrived Ms. Baker had an embarrassing moment when she discovered that the combination of having short legs and wearing a skirt prevented her from climbing up the high train steps.
I couldn’t get my foot up to it. U.S. Senator John Glenn was with me and he said, "I know, let’s boost her up," and he grabbed my arm. I knew there were thousands of people watching and there must have been a look of panic on my face, but just i n time they found a step for me. President Clinton shook my hand and showed me all over the train, just like it was his house. It was very impressive. The president sat beside me on the stage and talked to me. He just sparkles! When he got up and I went t o shake his hand, he hugged me instead.
Now that Ms. Baker has her degree she wants to help other older students find their way to college. "I taught a class here at OU-C, a university experience class, which I really loved doing. I got to help people feel more comfortable about coming bac k to school. I’ve never met anyone who went back to school who wasn’t afraid, didn’t feel really out of place, and hadn’t forgotten how to study and how to think. When I first went to Athens I thought, ‘Omigosh, there’s a zillion teenagers here and me.’ M y political science professor, Delysa Burnier, made me feel very comfortable and was very helpful."
Ms. Baker also teaches math workshops for the Department of Human Services, teaches a number of classes at Southeastern Business College, and works as a substitute teacher for the city schools.