She Came, She Signed, She Left After 30 Minutes

Well, the big Bristol Palin Book Signing-Palooza took place last night at our local Fredericksburg Walmart store.

From the looks of it, the citizenry was underwhelmed.

The day before, our little burg had even made the pages of the satirical website Wonkette.com (click the link for the story).

There was excited talk of large crowds because this area is heavily Republican and also of the Tea Party persuasion, despite the fact that former President Lyndon B. Johnson was (and still is) such a huge figure in these parts.

Hell, Lady Bird Johnson continued to be a member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church (just down the street from my daughter’s house) up until her death a couple of years ago, even though Lady Bird had been a resident of Austin for many years.  Old connections run deep in this part of Texas.

We didn’t attend the big event which kicked off at 6 pm because we had the grandkids here and because we really didn’t give a hoot.  However we did end up at Walmart later in the evening after our weekly pilgrimage to McDonald’s.

I’d checked the news feeds earlier and found this little blurb and photo on the Fox News (where else?) San Antonio website about Bristol’s visit:

 

Palin Visits Fredericksburg Store
The daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin spent the evening in Fredericksburg.  Bristol Palin signed copies of her new book “Not Afraid of Life” at the town’s Walmart store.  The book talks about Bristol’s experience in the public eye when her mother campaigned as John McCain’s presidential running mate.

I think the part about “spent the evening” is a bit disingenuous.  When my husband was checking out at Walmart he went to the express checkout that happened to be right next to the area where Ms. Palin had been holding court.

(As you can see in the photo, it was a set-up fit for a queen, complete with a bouquet of roses snatched from the floral cold case just a few steps away and a faux palm tree hauled in from the crafts department in the back of the store.  Notice, too, the heavy knit scarf around Bristol’s neck.  WTF?  It was at least 98 outside, and not a whole lot cooler in the store.)

The checker had been there the whole time and said that Bristol had left after only 20 mins. to a half hour of signing.  There was even a point where there was no one waiting, so she graciously (to her credit) went around and introduced herself to the employees in the area.

In the grand tradition of her Mama Grizzly, she’d brought little Tripp (have I got the name right?  With all the Tripps, Tracks, Trigs, etc., it’s hard to keep up) along for added value.  No Sarah, though.

The checker said that while Palin was still there an elderly lady went through her check-out line and muttered “Hmmph.  What does she know about life?”

When my husband was just about done checking out, the Walmart employee said “When you get down to it, it’s all about the money, isn’t it?”

Indeed.