For a number of reasons we didn’t get to the Return Day ceremonies in Georgetown last Thursday, even though the main attraction was the presence of Vice President-elect Joe Biden. Return Day is always a major event, and unique in the country. Everyone should attend it at least once, although we are unlikely to ever again see a situation where a candidate is as well known as Joe Biden.

    But I was fortunate to have a daughter who did attend and could tell me something about it. That leads me to mention the story of the three McIntosh apples.

    Daughter Ruth and her husband Don, who live in Milford, managed to get to Georgetown early enough to find a place to park. It was a rainy day, as you may recall, and they joined the crowd headed toward The Circle, the area in front of the Sussex County Court House where the results of the election two days earlier are read out and a hatchet is ceremoniously buried.

    While vendors in past years were able to get near the center of things and sell food, Ruth knew that this year was different. So she packed a lunch for her and Don, including three McIntosh apples and two bananas.

    In finding their place as near to the action as possible, they had to pass through security checks along with everyone else. So Ruth showed the security checker her food.

    He looked at the apples. “We’ll have to take these,” he said.

    “You’re kidding,” Ruth said.

    The man looked over to another security man, who backed up the decision.

    “I’m not kidding,” the first man told Ruth.

    There was some comment that followed to the effect the apples could be used as weapons.

    “It’s like a fascist society,” a nearby man murmured.

    As odd as the apples incident was, and as indicative as it is about the super tight security, Ruth and Don enjoyed the day. As Joe Biden went riding by he pointed to someone he knew from time to time and one of them was Don, who had been an official with the U. S. Department of Agriculture for eight years. He was and is again a farmer, and a very good one.

    Ruth sums it up, “It was very exciting!”

    *****

    A story about the Return Day tradition that occurred in 1972 is one I tell from time to time. It illustrates not only the winning personality of Joe Biden but also the character of the man he defeated in 1972 in the first of his six Senate victories.

    Biden was a 29-year-old member of the New Castle County council when he decided to run for the Senate against Sen. Cale Boggs, who was the best known political figure in the state at the time. He had been previously elected to three two-year terms as U.S. Representative, two four-year terms as governor and two six-year terms as senator.

    He had not intended to run for a third Senate term but was finally persuaded to do so because it appeared that it would assure keeping a Republican seat and would also quell the jockeying for the nomination among several prominent Delaware Republicans interested in filling the seat.

    Joe ran an excellent campaign. He hired experienced political help and was careful not to attack Cale. His theme was more along the line of “He’s been in office long enough and it’s time for a change.” (Ever hear that line of campaigning before?)

    It didn’t take long for the two men to get to know and like each other. Likeability was Cale’s outstanding strength. He knew people all over the state and any time they met him he acted very pleased about it, which was not a fake reaction. I know, I worked for him for nearly six years as his chief of staff in Washington. Anyone coming to his Washington office was important simply because they were Delawareans. Democrats seemed especially welcome.

    But to get to the point of the story. Joe told me well after the election that along with his pleasure on election night of winning, he also felt anger that his good friend Cale had been pushed into running again.

    And when Cale told him on the phone on Tuesday night that he had a bad cold, Joe advised him to stay home two days later on Return Day, a time when all candidates, winners and losers, come together to mend the stress and possible bad feelings of the just concluded election campaigns.

    “No,” Cale told him, “I’ve always gone to Return Day when I’ve won. I’ll go this time when I’ve lost.” And he did.

    That says something about the late Cale Boggs which I will always remember.

    I’m sure Joe remembers it too. It was, I’m pretty sure, his first experience at Return Day.

*****

    Elsewhere in this issue is a story about the coming move of the paper’s staff at 609 E. Division St. to the company’s web printing building on South Little Creek Road. The South Little Creek Road building is one mile east of Route 13 on eight acres of land, and is a short distance before getting to Horse Pond Road on the right.

    Because the building at 609 E. Division St. was Dover’s first airplane hangar when it was built in 1933, and was a roller rink for years after that, the Post is running a feature story about it.
    If any readers have information or memories about the building during times of its many uses over the years, or have pictures of its earlier years, please get in touch with me at the Dover Post (678-3616 or mr.flood@doverpost.com). Yes, I’m still “retired” but I also drop by a time or two a week. I plan to write a little history of the building. Hearing from you by next Wednesday would be a big help.

    Thanks.

    *****

    If you can stand another lawyer joke:
    Jack: “Are you a lawyer?”
    Jill: “Yes.”
    Jack: “How much do you charge?”
    Jill: “A hundred dollars for four questions.”
    Jack: “Isn’t that awfully expensive?”
    Jill: “Yes. What’s your fourth question?