There was a time when I was awed by politicians and hoped I could be one when I grew up.

When I was a wee lad I played on the floor of my family’s home while my father listened to radio broadcasts originating at the major national political conventions. At one of the conventions, there was an unplanned back stage fire which added to the excitement. At the time I thought it a big deal but this week I couldn’t find a story about it on the internet. But I did learn about other fires which destroyed the Democrats’ convention halls. I didn’t search for similar stories about the Republicans so some will conclude I’m not treating the subject fairly.

I may no longer be the 24-year old editor of this newspaper but neither am I old enough to remember the 1900 Democratic Convention held in Kansas City. That year the meeting hall the Democrats planned to use was destroyed by fire on April 4, 1900. It was rebuilt in time to house the convention delegates and candidates July 4 through 6.

At that convention, King David Kawananakoa, heir to the throne in Hawaii, was the first member of royalty to attend a political convention as a delegate.

That year a Nebraskan, William Jennings Bryan was unopposed in his quest for the party’s nomination for president. He allowed the delegates at the convention to choose his running mate. Adlai E. Stevenson, who had served as vice president under Grover Cleveland, was selected. Years later I was watching the televised convention when the first Adlai Stevenson’s grandson, a man also named Adlai Stevenson was selected to run for the office of President.

While I don’t think he was officially campaigning for president when he visited Superior, I suspect William Jennings Bryan is the only candidate for President to ever speak in Superior. Bryan was only 36 years old when he ran for President in 1896. He carried the party’s standard again in 1904 and in 1908 but never won election. The 1908 convention was held in Denver, the first time a major political party held its convention in a Western state.

The 1956 conventions held by the Republicans and Democrats were the first I saw on television. I was fixed in front of my parents’ big 21-inch black and white CBS Columbia television as long as the conventions were being broadcast. I was happy they had replaced an earlier 17-inch set. Today many television sets are much larger.

That year the Democrats put on quite a show. Adlai E. Stevenson easily won the Presidential nomination on the first ballot but selection of a vice president was another matter. The major candidates were Estes Kefauver, John Kennedy, Albert Gore, John Wagner and Hubert Humphrey. Kefauver won the first ballot but didn’t get enough votes to win the nomination. Kennedy won the second but he too was short of votes. Following the second ballot, Gore withdrew and gave his support to Kefauver who eventually was selected. The voters retained in office Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, the Republican nominees.

As a youngster, I dreamed of someday attending one of the conventions. I even calculated in which year I would first be old enough to run for the office of president. But those dreams have gone the same way as my plan to build a two-story limestone ranch house in the middle of a Kansas pasture and then go horseback riding every day.

Though I may have forgotten my dream to attend a national convention, the politicians haven’t forgotten me.

I’m getting dozens of emails every day from both political parties soliciting my support. Trump supporters have repeatedly offered everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs for my support. Supposedly they have the items reserved in my name and ready to ship if I will only confirm the delivery address and show my loyal support of the Republican Party and President Trump.

The Democrats have not forgotten me.

Monday an email identified me as an important member of the Democratic party and advised I needed to send a $7 donation and claim my official membership card.

Apparently place and party of registration doesn’t matter to those directing the campaign.

Many years ago when I was still living in Kansas but working in Superior, the Nuckolls County Republican Women ask my help them when a U.S. Senator visited Superior. My job was to stand in the receiving line beside the senator and greet each person as they came through. Though the senator would probably be talking to someone else, he would be listening for the name of the next person in line which I was to pronounce clearly.

I must have done a good job for a few days later I received a letter asking if I would be the senator’s Nuckolls County campaign manager. Since I was not yet a Nebraska resident or voter, I was able to politely decline the offer.

Years later a Nebraska lieutenant governor came to Superior to campaign for the governor was seeking election to the U.S. Senate. On behalf of the newspaper I was among those present when she arrived in Superior. Though I was not a member of her political party, I was asked to guide her as she traveled about Superior.

As I finish making these entries in the notebook, I’m having second thoughts about my decision to decline the current political offers. Perhaps I should have accepted and added whatever they were offering to send me to my collection of “stuff I don’t want but can’t throw away.”