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On Stag Night at the Russell Veterans of Foreign Wars post, 150 men congregate for a dinner of sausage and potatoes and two games of bingo. The men are mostly burly and white haired. The talk is of the price of oil and wheat--both too low. Larry Campbell is a Vietnam vet, and he's angry, but not at Bob Dole. "I make $10,000 a year," he says, "but I'm not complaining. You just have to accept things here. I'm a red-neck conservative, more conservative than Bob Dole. But he's my hero." The V.F.W. is host of a barbecue for Dole this week, and the vets are proud to play their part, even though they can't exactly point to anything Bob Dole has done for Russell, except to come from it. "He's one of our own," says Norman Staab, a former national commander of the V.F.W.--and that's enough.
The Clinton-Gore bumper sticker on Nancy Lane's Plymouth stands out in Russell. She has been teaching government at Russell High since 1964. So, are the students enlisting in Bob Dole's last mission? "They're proud and pleased," she says and then pauses. "Now they don't talk about Dole being old, but they like the fact that Clinton seems young." C.J. Mahoney, the fresh-faced student-council president at Russell High, observes, "All the kids support Bob Dole, but they don't really know why. Bob Dole is a bit distant from us."
For Dole, Russell serves a dual purpose. It is the most effective backdrop for his election commercials, but it is also a kind of emotional refueling stop, the one place where, as his sister Gloria says, "he can find comfort." The house at 1035 North Maple, where Dole grew up (and which he now owns), has been empty since the day his mother died in 1983. The neat spice rack in the kitchen still holds the cinnamon she sprinkled on Sunday-morning pancakes. Gloria shows off Bob's old room and points to a wooden clothes stand. "That's where he hangs his suit," she says. "He'll probably have a quick nap here when he comes."
Every morning the Old Guard gathers at Meridy's restaurant for coffee and liar's poker. After losing the first round, Everett Dumler, who was a senior at Russell High when Dole was a freshman, consults his list from the Dole campaign of things to get ready. He's a little worried about the "balloon rise" and the "bows on poles," but he has done it before. "He's never forgotten us," Dumler says. And these men can never forget him, or else they too may be forgotten.