By the way, Pete Buttigieg is supposed to be at a "meet & greet" fundraiser a couple blocks away from me at 5pm. (And three other places in L.A. today.) By the time I found out about it you could only get in if you had $1000. Sheesh. It's not even clear that the sponsor's address is where it's actually being held. Sure would like to get a glimpse of him, though, so I might walk around the block this evening.
Tell us if you get to see him, Lyle!
So, I'd been out and about a lot yesterday and my feet/legs were bothering me and I wasn't in the mood to go stand around for a time and be disappointed, but when something is right nearby I keep saying to myself, just do it, you never know, and it's not out of your way, so I walked over to The Abbey and stood across the street from the location. There were news vans from the Los Angeles stations on the street. A dozen policemen from the Sheriff's station and just a few people, onlookers like me, around. It was nearing 5pm, so that's understandable and I got the sense that the town had no real idea this was happening and then I realized that I, myself, probably would not have known this was going on if someone hadn't told my friend Rich about it and he mentioned it to me, so...
I stood near one guy that I began chatting with and we wondered if Pete would be arriving by car and we'd get to see him go in or if there was a back entrance or even if he was already inside. There were two gates where the ticket holders were entering and being screened by security checkers.
This particular side street off Santa Monica Blvd. is very narrow at this point and in rush hour is often jammed with cars. Many people who were in the car lanes waiting for the light kept rolling down their windows and asking what was happening there. When I, or the guy I was talking to, answered, many didn't even know who Pete was. But many did, too.
So the best I was hoping for was to get a glimpse of Pete going into the venue near the appointed time of this event. The 5pm hour came and people were still getting checked in and a van pulled up, but it was the West Hollywood City Council members who got out of it.
About 5:25 I'd say we could hear introductory speakers talking about Pete. They had a decent sound system and the courtyard open space was conducive to being able to hear them pretty well, sans traffic noise.
So then I noticed two gentlemen across the street setting up a table on the sidewalk and I surmised that it was going to be Pete Buttigieg material, like campaign buttons, t-shirts, hats and the like and I decided to walk across the street and see. Sure enough, that's what it was. (Not uncommon that people selling things like that appear around campaign events.) I talked to the guy and he said he was connected to the campaign and traveled around with them from event to event and he'd be going to San Francisco tomorrow (today now). He talked about being in South Bend for the campaign kickoff and was quite enthusiastic about Pete, whereas many of these people are usually just interested in making the money. His name is Greg and I said I remember it by calling him ButtiGreg.
As I was checking my wallet to see if I'd brought any cash with me I happen to turn around and noticed that--The Abbey is a bar/nightclub where the event was happening. On the left side is an adjunct to The Abbey which is a bar and seating area which people can partake of drinks, watch video on monitors etc. while waiting to get into The Abbey proper. The Abbey usually has a cover charge to get in. This section is called The Chapel, or The Chapel at the Abbey. (Obviously if you don't want to pay a cover charge you could still go in and spend money there.)
By this time Pete had been introduced and began speaking which I could hear. I noticed that a few people had been walking into The Chapel area so I went inside, too. I noticed some people having drinks at the bar and in booths and watching the speech on video monitors which cover the wall. I started to as well. This adjacent area has a wrought iron gate area separating it from The Abbey. I walked over to it and looked into the Abbey and lo and behold, I could see Pete on the stage area giving his speech. I'm not good at estimating distance, but he was only 100 feet away. 200 at most.
So, why would I watch the monitors when he was right there! Success! I couldn't believe it and got a thrill. Pete spoke for 17-18 minutes and so I saw nearly all his speech in person! Sometimes just "being there" pays dividends! At the end of his speech, his husband Chasten came up on stage and they hugged.
Last line of his speech: “If anybody tells you whether they’re not sure if America is capable in these twisted and dark times of delivering or vindicating our hopes, tell them you saw at The Abbey in West Hollywood the top tier presidential candidate on his way to the White House, moments after his husband introduced him.”
I watched the news later on and all the stations who covered it said this was a meet & greet fundraiser that was sold out and all the tickets were $25. Not true, as my friend and I were going to buy a $25 ticket and go. There were also tickets at $50, $100, $250, $500 and $1000!
Afterwards I bought a couple campaign buttons, one of which is the current Time Magazine cover!
So, in this case my persistence was rewarded big time and I was quite ecstatic to witness some history in the making!
If anyone is interested, I found this Facebook link to our local ABC7 news that has Pete's entire 17-18 min. speech
from The Abbey posted there:
https://www.facebook.com/ABC7/videos/2318128774910792/If not Facebook, here's a couple youtube videos:
ABC7: Pete Buttigieg at The Abbey in West Hollywood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cTqrhIyCccIntro and 1st half of speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGWuah24Y58